The Yonko's Kids
by RandomViolets
Summary: Shanks comes back to Foosha a year after the Higuma incident. He finds Luffy and his brothers beaten to hell, and afraid. Their grandfather did this? Sabo's dad hired an assasin? Oh no. No. No. No. These kids are not staying here. (How Shanks and Benn adopted Luffy, Sabo, and Ace, and their lives in the aftermath.)
1. Chapter 1

The Yonko's Kids

A/N: I'm going through a weird writing phase where I'm half working on this, half working on another ongoing OP story that I haven't posted yet because I keep changing the beginning, and really not frequently updating either. I'm honestly more of a person that sits down, writes three or four chapters, then doesn't touch the story for like six months. I'm trying to be better about that, but between that and my junior year of high school starting soon, I can't promise frequent updates. Plus I literally started writing this at like 3 am because one of my friends on discord started talking suicide again, and I really needed something fluffy and angsty that I could channel my "Mom-Friend" into. So, Enjoy?

Summary: During his last visit to Foosha, Shanks thought everything was fine. Luffy was just some goofball kid that he really liked, and whom Makino sometimes kept an eye on. He and his crew were expecting to come back and find roughly the same thing-a goofball kid and some good drinks. What they did not at all anticipate, was three beaten-all-to-hell kids getting treatment from Makino, and saying that their grandpa did it. The trio's tales of caretakers who barely feed or clothe them-and apparently treat Ace like a plague demon, which is a _big_ no-no in his book-, hunting tigers, and almost getting eaten by crocodiles makes him immediately want to scoop the three of them up and take them away from here. He resists because Benn was right last time they talked about this, and the Grand Line is really no place for kids.

Then Sabo talks about his biological father wanting to kill Luffy and Ace in attempts to bring him "home" and, well. Benn really can't blame him for acting on it, especially since he looked about two seconds from doing the same.

Chapter One

Shanks Pov:

Foosha village is the same as it always seemed to be when the Red Haired pirates arrived. Calm, quiet, and full of good booze at Makino's bar. Probably with a certain rubbery child ready to bombard them with questions and shows of "strength".

"Ah, it's good to be back here!" I exclaimed, causing several of my men to chuckle.

I really did enjoy our time here, it was easily my favorite island in the East Blue. Unfortunately, we didn't get to dock here too often-or anywhere outside of the New World really. It made the marines too antsy, and antsy marines made for a pissy Sengoku. Pissy Sengoku liked to sic Admirals on him more than usual. He really didn't like Pissy Sengoku.

"Hey, cap. Is it just me, or does something feel a little off to you today?" Yasopp muttered close by, just within earshot of me and Ben.

Except, it seems, today was not a "usual" day in Foosha. Yasopp wasn't the only one who noticed-everyone in the crew immediately noted the change in atmosphere in their favorite pub town. Normally peaceful quiet had turned into a tense kind of silence. Like an instant before a storm hit in the New World, turning the air into tense static just before a downpour. In the East Blue, that kind of tenseness in the air only served to unnerve us all.

The walk into, and through town was quiet as well, no one came out of their houses-not even the mayor, who normally liked to yell at him.

"Damn, what's with this place?" Lucky Roo muttered, glancing at the house that the normally boisterous mayor lived in.

It was weird. It was really weird, and it made him uneasy.

The bar was quiet when they arrived too-though that wouldn't be too strange, considering that it was probably ten o'clock in the morning, and most people in town wouldn't start drinking this early.

Except, the door was open, but it seemed Makino wasn't there.

"Maybe we should come back later?" Maverick mused. "She might not be open yet."

The bar's back room opened, and revealed Makino, carrying several towels, and a first aid kit.

"Makino! Is everything all right?" I asked, worrying that some small time idiot might have started something around here while I was gone.

The barmaid turned around in surprise. "Shanks! No, well, yes. Eh…" She trailed off, looking somewhat frazzled.

Kincaid stepped forward kindly. "If someone is injured I might be able to help."

Makino looked somewhat relieved. "That...that would be wonderful actually, thank you. The boys are in the back room-I imagine Luffy will want to see you Shanks."

"Luffy was hurt?" I asked sharply.

She grimaced, "His brothers too. They'll live, I think, but they were all a bloody mess when they came in."

I gave a worried glance over to Benn, who pursed his lips and nodded.

"Yasopp, you're in charge for a bit. Hang tight out here. We're gonna go see the kids." I called over my shoulder, following the green haired woman and our doctor to an upstairs room, Benn following right behind me.

At the top of the stairs was a little wooden door, which looked mostly unused-particularly with the layer of dust around the opening. Makino hurriedly pushed it open, still balancing the blankets and towels in one hand, with the red bag hanging from her arm.

"Hey boys, I'm back, and look who else showed up!" She exclaimed, seeming a little more cheery than strictly necessary about our visit.

"Shanks…" a tiny, very hoarse voice croaked out.

No. No. Nope, nononono. Someone did not hurt anchor so badly that he can't yell and scream and bounce around like a tiny, rubbery lunatic. No.

They better fucking not have.

When the barmaid and doc had moved aside enough for me to see, my heart fell into my stomach. Luffy and two other boys were laying in cots lined up in the frankly too-small room. Luffy had bruises covering the entirety of his face, and arms, and legs, and- _everywhere_. Every part of him seemed to be turning some shade of ugly purple, blue, or greenish-yellow. He had small cuts all over his body too-ranging from paper cuts to something that looked a bit more like claw marks, and there was definitely a bit of tree bark stuck in some of those too. He looked exhausted, and his throat was hastily wrapped in bandages too, under which I could see some heavy bruising, and a bit of blood.

The other boys didn't look much better-hell, they looked _worse_. The other dark haired kid had a very broken arm, and just as many bruises as Luffy, and probably twice the cuts. There was a half-dressed wound on his forehead that looked worrying too-very bloody, and probably enough to cause a nasty concussion.

The blond boy was in the middle of the three cots. One ankle was either badly sprained or broken-it was hard to tell from the swelling. Small cuts ranged all over his body, and there was a swath of burns across his chest, shoulder, and face that looked bad.

The guys had always teased me about being a "papa bear" when it comes to kids-luffy in particular I had always been quite fond of. Benn, being my partner, also knew of my more domestic side that wished that our lives weren't so dangerous that we couldn't have kids around. So, having to shove down the protective urge to _find_ the fucker that hurt these brats and make _them_ hurt was really nothing unexpected to me. However, that didn't mean that it was easy. Benn shot me a look out of the corner of his eye that clearly read ' _don't, idiot. You know we can't take them with us.'_

The blond kid's whimper of pain made that part of me that listened to him waver just a bit.

"Hey, anchor. What happened to you? Looks like you boys saw some action recently huh?" I smiled at him, trying to mask my worry. No need to freak the kid out any further with my protective stress.

He coughed weakly, something rattling a bit in his lungs as he did so, and catching doc's attention with a frown. "Gramps was training us."

I stilled, absently forcing the smile on my face to remain easy. "Gramps?" I knew that Benn heard the slight steel in my tone, and Doc too, with the way they both stiffened. My anger is not easy to rile up-I'm known as a very easy-going guy for a reason.

Kids are my weakness. Kids hurt, kids sick, kids scared, I've dealt with them all over the years. It thankfully wasn't something that was well-known about me-god forbid if my enemies tried to use it against me-, but one of the few sure-fire ways to piss me off _rapidly_ was to hurt a child.

Somebody just made my shit list. And apparently, that _somebody_ is called "Gramps."

Luffy nodded, "Survival training. He wants us to be marines, so he beats us up to make us stronger."

Tick. There goes one shard of my restraint.

"Then he left us in the really confusing part of the forest and told us not to die-he even took our pipes! That's the part where the kings of the forest live! He said he's come get us in a couple of weeks."

Tick.

"But then he said we needed more training so he beat us up again and told us to get back to the mountain or something from there. 'Cause learning your surroundings is important or something. I didn't get it. And Ace's arm was hurting real bad, and Sabo couldn't walk right, and Dadan probably wouldn't give us bandages anyway unless we said we'd become bandits to pay for them, so we were gonna go to Makino instead."

Tick.

"We don't wanna be bandits. We don't wanna be marines either, but Gramps won't listen! Then this stupid guy came down from High Town and said that Sabo's shitty dad wants him back for some reason, but Sabo doesn't want to go!"

Tick.

"Then he was gonna steal our treasure that we stole to pay for our boat to leave, and he tried to beat me up to make me tell him."

Tick Tick.

"But I wouldn't tell him and he got mad, then Ace and Sabo showed up and beat him up and got our treasure back. But they got hurt real bad. Then Sabo was gonna leave the island 'cause if he left then his shitty dad would leave me an' Ace alone."

Tick Tick.

"But we wouldn't let him leave alone, so we snuck on his boat and made him let us stay with him-he can't hurt any of us if we aren't there. So he said fine and we got in the boat. But then this really big ship with lots of fancy things on it showed up. They were assholes, and fired at our boat even though we didn't do anything! We were a long way away too! Sabo called them "Star Dragons" and said that they were here 'cause of his dad. The boat blew up and Sabo got hurt 'cause the fire was real close to him. Then Ace had to swim us both back to shore 'cause I can't and Sabo was unconscious. Then he brought us to Makino and she kicked everyone out so she could fix us."

Tick.

"And she says we'll be better soon, but Gramps will come back in a few weeks an' Ace and Sabo won't be all better by then, and he's gonna train us again. I don't wanna get beat up again if they are still hurt bad."

Snap. Oh look, there goes the last of my restraint.

I took in the tired, and slowly becoming frantic stream of words until the tiny boy finished rambling with large, scared eyes that watched his unconscious brothers. Distantly, I was aware of Benn trying to get my attention, probably realizing that I had been set off.

One, someone _hurt_ the kid I like, and maybe sort-of-see-as-a-son-that-I-won't-ever-have, and the two boys who are apparently his brothers. Two, one of the people who did that was their _grandfather._ The other was on orders from "Sabo"'s _father_ to _harm or kill_ the other two to force the _child_ to comply. Three, they tried to _escape_ the island that was supposed to be their peaceful _home_ in order to avoid both Sabo's _father_ and their _Gramps_ out of fear of _death_ and _further pain._ Four, they were thwarted from their escape by a _Celestial Motherfucking Dragon_ that _blew up_ their _tiny goddamn boat_ with only _three kids_ and probably _no supply's on it._

And now Luffy, tiny, normally brazen to the point of stupidity Luffy, was looking at me with eyes that reflected _fear._ Fear of this bastard Sabo calls a father, and fear of this "Gramps." I can hear the blond kid-Sabo probably, going by the ankle, making tiny, heart-wrenching sounds of pain while Doc and Makino cleaned the burn that covered so much of his body, and Ace is uncomfortably still, only the slight rise and fall of his chest assuring me that the kid is actually relatively alright.

No. No. No. Fuck this. I did not become a motherfucking yonko of the Grand Line so that I would turn my back on a couple of _terrified and injured children_. I'm the captain of one of the four recognized "strongest" crews on the seas. I go toe-to-toe with _Whitebeard_ for _fun_. I can protect a couple of kids on my ship. Benn can deal. He wants kids too anyway, he's just more rational than I am. Besides, it wouldn't kill us to spend a little more time in paradise over the next couple of years. Sure it might piss Sengoku off, but I can handle a few _Admirals_ when he throws them at me.

The kids are coming with us.

"Shanks." Benn is trying to use his reasonable-boyfriend-that-knows-what-I'm-thinking-and-thinks-its-a-bad-idea voice on me. It would work a lot better if I didn't know that he was barely keeping himself from wrapping Luffy in a massive hug and already plotting how to kill the bastards that did this.

I gave him a _look_.

He faltered for a moment, trying to retain some sort of stubborn-and very logical-reasoning as to _why_ it was a bad idea for us to adopt a couple of kids. I didn't waver, and set my jaw for good measure.

He sighed, and slumped his shoulders. "You need to ask them first."

I turned to Luffy, who looked very confused by the whole exchange, and I could see Doc out of the corner of my eye giving Benn a look of ' _What the fuck is that idiot doing now?'_. "Luffy, this is kind of a strange question, but if I gave you boys the option, would you still want to leave Dawn Island?"

He looked at me with very wide eyes for a minute, and answered very quietly. "Yeah."

I nodded, now for the real question, "We will be done restocking in a few days, that will give you boys some time to recover. If you still want to leave at the end of those few days, we can pack your things onto the ship and have you far, far away from here in only a few days time. Long before your "Gramps" gets back."

He gapped at me with so-wide eyes that were just filled with _hope_ and oh god I just wanted to smother these kids in love that they so obviously hadn't gotten enough of.

He seemed all ready to say yes, but hesitated when he looked at his brothers. "I wanna go...but I gotta ask Ace first. If Ace says ok then Sabo will be ok with it too. We listen to him 'cause he's the oldest. We can't go if Ace says no."

I groaned internally. Of all the times for anchor to listen to an authority figure, it has to be when said authority figure is his probably-younger-then-twelve-year-old brother who is unconscious and very likely concussed. Great.

I pursed my lips, ok, this is playing _kinda_ dirty, but it's for their own good...plus if that "Gramp's" comes back early that could be problematic. Luffy isn't known for being good with timelines. His "a couple weeks" could actually be in just a few days, so the sooner we got going the better. I'm sure we could handle it, but i'd rather not get the village or the kids involved in a marines versus yonko showdown in the East Blue, and from the sounds of it "Gramps" was a pretty high ranking marine. Now that I was thinking about it, I probably knew who he was too…

That just pissed me off more. Nope. Pirate. I can play dirty if I want.

"Doc, how soon do you think Ace is going to wake up?" I ask, giving him a sort of pointed look in the general direction of the dark haired boy.

The heavyset man pursed his lips and glanced between me, Luffy, and the other boy. "It's hard to tell, head wounds are tricky. Probably in about a day or two? Maybe sooner, maybe later."

Well shit, that was actually reasonable. Damn.

"But, he is likely to be quite inebriated with the painkillers I'm going to give him. So he won't be of decision-making mind for a good few days after that at least. I'd put him as being mostly conversational and probably remembering it in about a week or so." He finished, turning back to the other child and finishing the salve application on the burn.

Now that I could work with.

I turned back to Luffy, who was biting his lips in agitation. Shit ok now I feel really bad about this. "Luffy, how do you think that Ace would react to my question?"

He looked at me and croaked quietly, "Suspicious. He doesn't trust strangers. But I told him about you before and he knows that you saved me from the bandits last year so he might be ok."

Well shit. The kid is paranoid. Sounds about right with how they were raised.

"But he _really_ wants to get us off the island. And _I_ trust you, and Ace usually thinks my people-judgment is ok…"Luffy wavered for a bit, croaking indecisively. "I think he'd be kinda mad at me if I just said "ok", but….he'd probably be ok with it later. Sabo would like you anyway. Or at least Benn. So he'd probably help convince Ace if I asked him to….So, I think it would be ok."

Bingo. I can feel Benn's disapproving stare boring into the back of my skull. I'm gonna ignore it and deal with that later. Preferably after the kids are safely patched up and getting settled on the ship.

"Ok, how about this, when you feel a bit better in a day or two, you can lead us to where your stuff is. We'll take your stuff back to the ship and get it ready to leave as if you boys are gonna sail with us. If Ace is conscious, and Doc says he's not too drugged up to think clearly, and he says no, we'll take your stuff off the ship and put it back. If he isn't awake enough, or he says yes, then we keep it there and bring you three with us when we set sail next Friday. That sound fair?" It wasn't. It really wasn't, because I know that Doc and Benn both caught on to my subtle request to keep the kid slightly medicated enough to where there was no way he would be awake enough to make those decisions himself until we were safely out to sea and I could simply refuse to turn around if he flipped.

At the very least, I could drop these kids off on another quiet, safe island. Maybe Syrup. Give Yasopp an excuse to visit his kid. Or I could try to convince both the kids and Benn that we could handle being caregivers and parents to them. Either way, they will be safer there than they are here.

Luffy thinks it over, but nods slowly, not at all catching on to my little ruse. "Ok."

Benn sighs, "I'll go tell the crew to make preparations."

Makino stops him before he gets to the stairs. "If you do take the boys with you, a quick word of warning: Luffy can and will eat more than Lucky Roo in a sitting, and Ace is almost as bad. Sabo eats about like a normal child who burns a lot of calories should, so you don't need to worry about that, but the other two will need accommodation in that respect."

Benn nodded and turned to me, "I'll tell Lucky Roo and Maverick to make a separate allotment for that. Thanks for the heads up."

Oh boy. I am going to catch hell for that tonight when I get back to the ship. At least Benn is mostly supporting my protective streak.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

 **A/N: Ok, I'm going to make something clear here. I am a high school student. I am not an amazing author. I excel at factual, organized writing. Fiction is very much out of my comfort zone. When I do write stories, I write them as they come to me, in the perspective that they come to me. Writing character voices individually is hard. Making them all sound different and unique is hard. I _chose_ to write in first person because I wanted to play more on Shanks' character. Is it bad? Yes. I am aware of that. Because my only practice in writing has been with factual essays in class. No one has asked me to write something from first person perspective before, so I am trying something more or less new. If you are going to complain about what perspective I wrote this in, don't read it. It's that simple. I'm not forcing you to, it's your eyes, your brain, your choice. If anyone has actual _constructive_ _criticism,_ like how to organize things better, or not sound as choppy in scene changes, or "Hey, there is this grammatical/punctuation error I caught here", awesome. I'd love to hear it, it really helps me. If you're just going to complain about how I write, buzz off. I don't care. **

**As for the suggestion about including the Whitebeards in this, I actually do have plans to include them in the future! I'm still figuring out how to do it, and there will be a few chapters between here and then, but it will be coming. :)**

 **Also, about the bashing. I do have a reason for that. I normally hate bashing too, but I needed it to fix the plot of the story to my liking. Also, I have a few personal issues with Garp. Maybe I'm just not caught up enough with the later chapters/episodes to know more about the why's and hows, but there is a lot that can be questioned about him. He caused Ace to hate Roger, for what appears to me to be no reason(If I am wrong feel free to correct me on this and direct me to where I can familiarize myself with what really happened). He left his grandkids with _mountain bandits_. Yeah, ok, they are more or less good people, and I love Dadan honestly. But if you were to look at that from an outside perspective? That just sounds like child abuse/neglect in various forms. Along with it just not making any sense. I'm not doing this because I dislike Garp, I actually find him somewhat fascinating. I'm taking this from a slightly more "real-world" perspective, and adding in a very parental Shanks to the mix. Besides that, I'm literally using this story to vent my protective mom-friend frustrations at not being able to do anything when one of my friends is in an abusive household which is putting them in a bad state mentally. I'm basically channeling all of my "Mom-friend" instinct into Shanks here. The only difference is he is worried over an actual child that he can help, not a teenage friend that refuses to acknowledge that anything is wrong. Seriously people, cut me a little slack here. **

Shanks Pov

Pacing around the room wasn't helping my rising fury. It was just helping me focus enough on a task that wasn't destructive while I thought. Thinking was making me angrier, because it was making me realize a whole bunch of things that I really should have seen before in my earlier visits.

"Shanks." Benn tried.

Luffy was tiny-even for a seven year old, he was tiny. I had chalked it up to genetics before, but Makino said that the other boys were around ten, and both of them were a bit too small for their age too. They hadn't been eating right for _years._ Hell, being raised in the forest, the kids probably had no idea what vegetables _were_. Half the plants in there could be toxic. Their growth was probably stunted by a bad diet at a very important developmental age.

"Shanks."

Luffy had always begged me to let him on my ship, and a few times he had let slip that he wanted his brothers with him when he left. I had just chalked it up to his desire to become the King of the Pirates, and wanting an early start. No, maybe that was part of it, but he was just trying to be subtle about it- _and it actually worked too well._ He wasn't just trying to get a head start on piracy, he was trying to get himself and his brothers _off the island_ and into an environment that was more or less _safe._ He was asking me for _safety_ and I _ignored it._

"Shanks?"

From the sounds of it, Ace had become their de-facto leader as the oldest, because they had no fucking idea that adults were supposed to be taking care of them in the first place. The literal only reason that Garp had hired a "caretaker" in the first place was probably to make sure that they didn't die. From the sounds of it, the bandit woman had probably taken that quite literally. Barely clothed them, if they stayed under her roof, they got one bowl of rice and a glass of water. That's it. And she raised Ace from a baby! God only knows what atrocities she committed in that! Did she even bother to care about their emotional development at all? Hell, did she teach them how to read or write or _anything that they actually need to know?_

"Shanks!"

Luffy had briefly mentioned his brothers before, and he always said that Ace was very moody and suspicious of people. Well, that would make fucking sense if literally every adult that he had met aside from Makino had either hurt him, neglected him, or _told him that he didn't deserve to live._ Because the kid had started talking in his sleep after Doc Kincaid gave him pain meds and there is no way that a kid came up with that shit on his own when he was ten fucking years old. Someone told a _child_ who had done _nothing wrong_ that he _didn't deserve to live._ If it was Garp….That bastard better pray that he didn't get sent my way. I normally didn't go all out against the Admirals or Vice Admirals, but I might just _make an exception._

Benn grabbed me roughly by the shoulders and turned me to face him manually. His expression was deeply concerned, and just a touch wary. Like I was some sort of bomb about to go off.

"Shanks, get a hold of yourself. You're a half step away from your haki going loose. Your aura is all over the place." He said seriously, shaking me slightly to physically ground me a bit.

I took a deep breath and exhaled something like a quiet hiss, forcing my haki back where it tried to bubble up against my will. Damn, that hadn't happened in _years._ No wonder Benn was worried. It's not like me to lose control like that.

Once I was visibly calmer, he relaxed a bit, and circled his thumbs over my biceps soothingly. "Come on, let's go talk to the crew. I told them that the kids would be coming with us, but they still have no idea what happened. They are going to need answers soon."

I exhaled forcefully. "Right. Let's go."

* * *

"Hey cap, what's with-whoa." Yasopp cut himself off as we arrived, eyes widening and posture stiffening at the stiffly contained rage radiating out from me.

The entire crew was on edge from the moment they saw me. The last time I was like this was when I heard about the Buster Call on Ohara. Nico Olivia had been a member of Roger's crew, and I knew her pretty well, so that attack had hit me harder than it normally would have. That said, it had been several years since any of them saw me this angry. It made sense that they would be concerned.

I kept my voice as level as possible, "Everyone in the galley."

Everyone scrambled out of their previously assumed drinking, and corked bottles haphazardly, sensing that this wouldn't be a fun conversation.

* * *

Terry had halted the diner preparations in the kitchen when we arrived, his normally jovial face turning grim the instant he sensed the oncoming atmosphere.

It only took a few moments for everyone to be seat on the benches facing me and Benn.

"As Benn told you, Luffy and his two older brothers will be coming with us when we set sail. I know I'm the one who set the "no kids" rule, but there is a very good reason that we are making this exception now. These kids have been through hell-honestly I can't believe I didn't notice it in our previous visits with Anchor. Their "caretakers" have been neglecting them, and emotionally abusing at least one of them for years. Their "Gramps", who I'm almost certain is Garp-"

I heard Benn suck in a breath beside me, apparently he hadn't quite made the connections while he was trying to keep me calm.

"-beats the shit out of them to make them "stronger". Apparently because he wants to make them into marines, he uses that as an excuse. Regularly throws the kids into the worst part of the forest with no weapons, no aid, and no way of figuring out how to get out, for weeks at a time, and tells them to just "survive". Also, one of the brothers, Sabo, is on the run from a fuckshot father who threatened-and actually attempted-to kill Ace and Luffy in order to make the kid comply with his demands."

By now the entire crew was bristling with fury and disgust toward the pathetic vermin that called themselves "family" to these kids.

"If that wasn't enough, they tried to escape the island yesterday in a tiny boat-still injured from all of this shit, and on the run from the hitman Sabo's father hired. They got blown up by a Celestial Fucking Dragon that is apparently staying in High Town at the moment. Ace and Luffy got out of that mostly ok, but Sabo has burns covering about a third of his upper body at the moment. Kincaid is staying in the bar to keep an eye on the three of them for the next couple of days.

"Apparently, Ace is the oldest, and something of the decision-maker for the three of them, so normally, he would be the one telling me whether or not they are ok with us taking them away. But he will not be conscious enough to answer that for several days. At the very least, we are taking the kids away from here, for their own safety. If Ace says no, we will be dropping them off at the nearest safe island. If he agrees to it, we will take them with us back to paradise. I'm only leaving that particular offer on the table because if their grandfather _is_ Garp, then he will probably find them if we dropped them somewhere like Syrup. It will be much harder for him to track them in the Grand Line." I finished, trying, and failing to keep the disgust out of my voice.

The entire galley was quiet-something that rarely happened on their ship. For several minutes, the only sounds were faint breathing, and the gritting of teeth.

"Captain." Yasopp asked with a kind of steely calm that only a sniper could pull off. "Next time we see Garp, permission to shoot out his knee?"

I gave him a tiny, malevolent grin. "I'm going to double check that it _is_ Garp first. If it is, then yes. Absolutely."

He nodded, calmly running a hand over his rifle, "Good to know."

It was just then that I was reminded of Yasopp's own son, Usopp, that lived on Syrup. Like me, Yasopp was another person pretty easily affected by kids. The only reason he hadn't visited his son after Bachina died was because he didn't want to risk someone finding out that he _had_ a son, and trying to use the kid as a hostage. For the same reason, he cut off communications from Syrup shortly after he left, not wanting to risk his enemies finding his family there, even by letter.

It made sense that he would want some sort of revenge.

Pretty soon after that, everyone went about their normal routines-albeit with solemn anger rather than joy.

Terry came up to me shortly after dinner. "Captain, do you know anything about the boys' eating habits? Any allergies I need to be aware of?" the chef inquired, scratching absently at the gray-green scruff on his face with one hand, and shoving the matching braid back over his shoulder.

Benn piped up, "Makino said that two of them eat much more than normal. Ace eats a little less than Lucky Roo, and Luffy eats a bit more. Sabo eats about as much as any regular kid I think. She didn't mention any allergies, but I can ask."

The burly man raised an eyebrow at that, "Alright then, I guess that explains the almost doubled food stores that Maverick came back with."

I decided to butt in, "No idea about allergies, but these kids are used to hunting for most of their own food. I'm pretty sure that means a very unbalanced diet, especially since they all look a bit like they missed out on the normal kid growth spurt."

His face grew grim, "So up the veggies and make plans with Kincaid to fix some sort of malnutrition with all of them. Got it. Think they'll be picky?"

"I doubt it. From the sounds of it they are used to eating whatever is edible. I'd be kind of surprised if they complained about food." Benn continued.

"Well, at least I won't have to deal with _picky_ malnutritioned brats." Terry muttered, wandering back to the kitchen-probably to start figuring out some semblance of a diet plan to help the kids.

* * *

Benn groaned, and threw his hand over my face to force my eyes shut, "Shanks, go to sleep. You can stress about the kids in the morning."

I huffed quietly, and moved his hand down from my face, not letting go of it when I let it rest on my chest.

He sighed, "You couldn't have known. None of us did. Luffy never said anything, and neither did anyone else in town. There was no way for you to know."

My grip on his hand tightened, "Benn, he's so _tiny._ Seven year old are not supposed to be that _tiny._ He looks like a toddler."

"We thought that it was genetics. Some people don't get growth spurts until they are a bit older." He reasoned.

"His brothers are the same, and they are definitely not blood related." I argued.

"You didn't know what his brothers looked like before today." Benn shot back.

I bit my lip and glared up at the ceiling.

Benn removed his hand from mine, and traced over the mangled scar that covered much of my left bicep. Kincaid had barely had enough to work with after I got back from the seaking incident, but somehow managed to pull a miracle and reattach the thing. Even Kincaid wasn't sure that it would retain any sort of function, or if he would just have to amputate it in a few weeks anyway, but somehow the nerves reconnected properly. Now I had slightly less range of motion, and was physically weaker on that side, but had learned to make up for it.

"Shanks, you were ready to give your dominant _arm_ for this kid last year. If you had known something was going on, you would have done something much sooner. You didn't abandon him, you didn't turn him away. He never asked you for help. You didn't know." Benn intoned quietly.

"I know," I whispered. "But somehow that doesn't help."

* * *

"Hey anchor!" I greeted cheerfully as I walked into the tiny wood-paneled room.

"Hi Shanks!" Luffy sounded a bit more cheerful today, and his voice was a touch less croaky than it was the day before.

"Kincaid says you can get out for a bit as long as one of us carries you. You want to go get your stuff?" I ask, ruffling his hair gently.

He grins. It's a lot less than the usual face-splitting, megawatt grin he usually sported, but it was a fair sight better than yesterday.

"Yeah!"

Benn chuckled behind me, and stepped forward to help me situate the tiny child on my shoulders without aggravating his injuries.

When we get downstairs I ask him where we need to go.

"The mountains." He says quietly. I can feel him grip my head just a bit.

"Hey, no need to worry. If anything comes at us Benn and Yasopp can handle it. No problems." I assure him, reaching up to pat his head-the only part that seemed mostly undamaged was the top of his skull.

"'Kay."

* * *

We got attacked three times. By a tiger, a bear, and something that Luffy claimed was a crocodile. I really don't think that crocodiles live in freshwater ponds, but then again I didn't think that animals grew that big outside of the Grand Line either.

They hunted this stuff? Brave kids.

"There it is!" Luffy called, pointing somewhere above me.

"Eh?" I tilted my head back, careful not to dislodge the child sitting on my neck.

A treehouse. A poorly built, very much not stormproof or remotely safe treehouse. Seriously, it was a couple of boards hashed together into a floor, with something like a roof wedged between some higher branches, and a rope ladder nailed precariously onto one of the sturdiest boughs. This was where they lived.

Had to give them credit though, even though it looked ready to crumble, I could see where they had put extra effort into making it sturdy. It probably looked a lot more rickety than it was. Not bad for a couple of untrained kids with a hammer.

Yasopp volunteered to climb up first, and make sure that it wouldn't crash around the weight of adults. I didn't go because I had Luffy, and Yasopp was a bit smaller than Benn, and was therefore less likely to crack the wood than he was. After a minute of rooting around up there, Yasopp hopped down with a small sack in one hand.

"Luffy, did you kids have much up there? This is all I found." He asked, looking kind of confused.

Yasopp laid the sack on the ground, and emptied its contents carefully. Three metal pipes, a bag of gold about the size of my face, a small bundle of mismatched clothes, and a cracked picture frame. When he turned it over, the picture frame showed the three boys smiling at the camera, with Makino's bar in the background, looking much happier and healthier. And still much too small.

"That's everything." Luffy confirmed.

My heart clenched just a little. The clothing was obviously too small for even Luffy to use, meaning it had been their old sets that they had apparently repurposed into rags of some sort. The gold was probably the "treasure" that they were using to save up for a ship, before they were forced to steal a skiff. The pipes were dented and scratched, and had blood dried on in places. That picture frame was probably the only personal item that they owned. The only thing that wasn't a necessity-except maybe the hats.

Shit, Ben and I could have come alone. Yasopp came with us because we thought we might need more hands to help carry things. That bag couldn't even weigh fifty pounds including the gold and the pipes.

Yasopp nodded, and carefully put things back into the sack before standing up and walking back to the town.

* * *

Several days later, the predetermined deadline was approaching, and Kincaid was readying the boys to be packed up and moved to the ship tomorrow. Benn and I were in the room with him, helping keep Luffy distracted while the doctor changed Sabo and Ace's bandages. We heard someone burst into the bar downstairs, and shared a look briefly over the kids' heads.

"Makino!" the voice filtered through the stairwell and cracked doorway. "Are the pirates here?"

"Konda! What on earth? Yes they are, but-" the barmaid tried to calm the distressed man.

I moved toward the door.

"If they are taking the kids, they need to go now! My nephew just called from the Dawn City base-Garp is back in East Blue! He'll be here in three days or less!" The man was apparently one of the few who knew about Garp's treatment of his "grandsons", but couldn't do anything about it besides be nice to the kids when they were in town. Same story with the mayor, Makino, and the local Doctor, Miss Jaklyn, who had quietly supplied extra painkillers and bandages to Kincaid for the kids.

I shot a look over to Benn, who pursed his lips and nodded. Kincaid quickly finished wrapping up Sabo's burns again, and motioned Benn to help him. I scooped up a suddenly very quiet Luffy, and Benn moved to the other cot to grab Ace while Kincaid carefully maneuvered Sabo in a way that wouldn't press on his burns.

Footsteps thudded up the stairs, and Maverick's blonde head appeared around the corner. "Captain-"

"We heard, tell the guys to wrap up and pay the tab. Get everyone back to the ship and get ready to set sail. We're leaving as soon as everyone is on board." I instruct the navigator.

He nodded, and shot back down the stairs, calling orders to the rest of the crew to do just that.

By the time we got down the stairs ourselves, most of the guys had cleared out, only Lucky Roo and Vick staying to handle the tab with Makino.

"Wait, Shanks!" The woman called out from behind the counter. She quickly reached under one of her cabinets and pulled out a few small bundles. "Give these to the boys for me later please? I intended to give them these when they set out on their own in a few years, but I think this works well enough. Besides, you can actually teach them how to use these."

There were three small packages, all around the same size, wrapped in brown paper and twine, and each one labeled with one of the boy's names on them. She handed them off to Lucky Roo, as my hands were currently occupied with a child, but I nodded all the same.

"Of course."

"Shit," She muttered, looking frazzled-she probably hadn't expected to have to say goodbye to the kids so soon. "Ok, quick rundown on them before you leave. Luffy you know pretty well already, but if he gets really quiet for a while just let him hug someone for a bit. It usually cheers him up and he'll be back to normal in about half an hour or so. Sabo is the most logical one, so if Ace or Luffy start doing something stupid, convince him first. If he's not in on whatever idiocy they are involved in, the other two are less likely to do it. Ace is grouchy at the best of times, and has terrible manners. If they end up staying with you for an extended time you will need to work with him on both. He has a lot of personal issues that Garp and Dadan started.

Also, Ace is extremely protective of his brothers. If something does set him off, he'll probably hide somewhere with the two of them until it blows over. Or he'll just keep them in his sight at all times. The only one of them that knows how to read is Sabo, but he doesn't really know how to write well. Don't let Sabo have coffee. He likes it, but it sends him off the walls." she rushed out, sounding out of breath by the time she finished.

I blinked at the onslaught of information, but nodded, "Got it."

She bit her lip, "I doubt that I need to say this, but...Take care of them."

Benn nodded to her, "We will."

Makino walked over to me, and gently brushed a hand over Luffy's hair. "Bye Luffy, mind Shanks and Benn would you? And you and your brothers stay safe."

Luffy shifted a bit in my arms, sniffling, "We will. Bye Makino."

With that, the woman smiled and stepped back, allowing me to follow Benn and Kincaid out of the bar.

* * *

When we got to the ship, everyone was scrambling into a well-practiced motion. Sails unfurled, anchors raised, and cargo checked in the hold.

"We're all ready to go captain!" Maverick called as we walked up the gangplank.

I covered Luffy's ear with one hand and hollered, "Good! Set the course for Tarushi Island!"

Tarushi wasn't too far from Syrup. If Ace really wanted them off the ship, my game plan was to take a smaller boat there from Tarushi, and make arrangements for them on Syrup. However, if they decided to stay, Tarushi was known for good quality furniture. We could get them set up with proper beds, dressers, and desks in their room. It had been a storage room, but we never used it for anything but alcohol, which we could just as easily store elsewhere. It had been easy to clean out and put a few cots in. Though, those cots wouldn't be used for a while, because the kids would be staying in the infirmary until Kincaid said that Sabo's burns and Ace's head wound didn't need a lot of monitoring. Luffy could stay there now, but he made it clear that he didn't want to be too far from his brothers, so he would be staying in the infirmary as well until all three were well enough to move.

We walked through the ship, and settled the kids in the infirmary quickly, so that Benn and I could get on deck and help ready the ship's takeoff. Luffy immediately curled up on the cot, and faced his brothers as they were arranged carefully just a few feet from him. I pursed my lips at the unusually vacant expression on his face. Shit. Garp really has a bad effect on these kids. We need to get the hell out of here so I can give this kid a hug. A really long hug.

Thankfully, it didn't take us too long to get out to sea, and a fair distance from Foosha. When The island was no longer visible on the horizon, Kincaid pulled me to the side and informed me that he would be lowering the dosage for Ace, and allowing him to regain a bit of lucidity.

I nodded to the doctor in understanding, "How long do you think it will take for him to be awake enough to answer?"

"Probably a few hours at least. He should be conscious sometime tonight." He answered before walking away.

Well, that would give us the answer one way or the other tonight. If Ace wanted to stay, or if the boys would be living on Syrup from now on. I was selfishly hoping for the former.


	3. Chapter 3

Edit: Okay, this is the edited version of chapter three. I noticed a few things with the comments after I first posted this, and agreed with some of them. You're right, I did kind of ignore Ace's personal issues a bit with Roger, and its not realistic to make him seem so easily accepting of having dads now. However I will say this-I fucked up the timeline intentionally ok? Ace is still young, he hasn't asked as many people, and he's a lot more focused on his brothers' safety. He's more doubtful of Garps words here, so it isn't as deep-rooted of a problem here as it may have been in Cannon. I sort of twisted the usual characterization of Ace. He's a bit less of a "hotthead" here, because he is used to having to be the quick-thinking voice of logic for his two brothers(something that will come a bit more into play later).

Also as a side note: I honestly had no idea that Sabo's appetite in Cannon was up there with his brothers. I haven't seen those scenes yet. Most of my "future" timeline knowledge (post Water 7) comes from common themes that I've seen repeated in most, if not all fanfics I've read. I realize that I'm off. I'm choosing to leave it like this for now, with the excuse that some painkillers can seriously decrease your appetite, and he is on a lot of them.

A/N: Wow, thank you guys for the support on this story! It really means a lot to me. And thank you to the person who reviewed and enlightened me a bit on how Garp actually influenced Ace, that was extremely helpful to me. I will be keeping with my "bashing" of Garp for a while yet, but there may be a chance for his redemption later on, we'll see. As for the Whitebeards, they will be coming up in a few chapters! I want to give the kids a bit of time to adjust to the whole "Hey, we actually have parents" thing for a bit first, and give a couple of nice, fluffy, probably comedic chapters first. I have an idea for how I'm going to play that particular arc, but I'm still working out the details. I have ideas for how to maybe add in the other future Strawhats into the story as well later on, so let me know if you guys would like to see that, or if I should keep this to familial, and maybe write one shots that can go in conjunction. Also, coming after the Whitebeards, I will be adding in two of my personal favorite characters-one of whom will not die like he did in cannon. Stay tuned for that, and enjoy!

Chapter 3

Ace Pov

I blinked blearily at the ceiling. I don't see treetops, and there aren't holes in it. Not the treehouse or Dadan's place then. The wood looks darker than the stuff in Makino's bar-wait, why does it kinda feel like the world is moving?

"Ace?" Lu's voice-way too quiet, shit, that's not good-calls out from somewhere to my left.

I inhaled to speak, but coughed and sputtered at the sudden intake of air-holy crap, how long was I asleep for? I bit back a groan at the weird feeling and faint fuzziness in my head, "Yeah?" Shit. I don't sound good either. What happened?

Lu shifted on something fabric, and I turned my head slowly to look at him. Everything felt weird. Like I had stuffed my head full of cobwebs or something, and it made my movements sluggish and uncoordinated.

My little brother's pattering footsteps went around something-a bed probably, now that I was waking up a little I realized I was on one too-and stopped next to me. I could just see the top of his head, then his peering eyes over the edge of the bed when he stood up on his tiptoes.

"You're awake!" He whispered, looking entirely too happy at that.

Oh crap. Lu's not usually a worrier, over exaggerating of stuff maybe, but not a worrier. Why does he look like I had been gone a while?

"Hey, what's wrong?" I asked, keeping in the same whisper-tone. I shifted a bit over in the bed, and patted it with my hand. Lu took the invitation immediately, and scrambled up beside me. In seconds he was curled into my side, and pressing his face into my chest. My left arm went around him to press him closer, and my right twitched to do the same before it was stopped by the twinge of pain and a weird bulkiness.

"Oh yeah, Doc Kincaid said you shouldn't move your arm too much. It broke. He fixed it but he said it would still hurt for a while." Lu muttered into my shirt.

Broken? I glanced at the arm and noted for the first time the blue cast surrounding my forearm and part of my hand. When did I-Shit. Gramps. Forrest. Sabo's Dad. Bluejam. Giant ship. Explosion. Oh god they had-

I shifted Lu away from me a bit to look at him in the dim light. He had a couple of bandages around him, but not over anything that looked too serious. There were some fading bruises along his arms, and one on his face that I knew was from Bluejam and had been worse than the others for some reason. They were mostly in the yellowing-almost brown stage. Ugly, but they would be gone soon. I glanced around the room quickly and found my other brother laying on the cot in front of me.

Sabo was unconscious, or sleeping. Maybe that's why Lu was whispering. I could see a cast on his ankle, and there were swaths of bandages wrapping from his left arm up to his face. My heart leaped into my throat. Oh sea gods, is he ok?

"Sabo'll be ok. Kincaid said so. But he's hurting a lot, and the med'cine only helps some. He has a lot of burns. Kincaid said they'll scar but he'll be ok." Lu muttered lowly, calming my nerves slightly.

I let out a breath. Thank fuck. We're all ok. Hurting, but ok. Priority one maintained.

Next topic…

"Who's Kincaid?" I asked frowning.

Lu had always known the villagers better than I had. I only really knew Makino at all, and sort of the mayor. Though, he mentioned everyone he knew when he got back up the mountain. It seemed kind of familiar, but I couldn't place who that was.

Lu shifted-almost guiltily, which made me narrow my eyes a bit.

"He's Shanks' doctor."

Shanks's doctor? Well, that would explain why I didn't know him at all. I hadn't met any of the crew that Lu had raved about being awesome-and who I knew he had been subtly trying to convince to let us sail with them. He had been unsuccessful so far. Though, I _did_ very much remember that the pirate captain had saved my little brother's life last year-almost at the cost of his arm. He was decent at least, and Makino had been willing to vouch for him as well. His crew...well, if a guy like him could trust them, they were probably alright. Still, wouldn't hurt to be cautious.

Wait. Moving world. Unfamiliar wood. Pirate crew….

"Lu, where are we?" I asked carefully.

He shifted again, squirming, "On Shank's ship."

I breathed calmly, "Why?"

He was really quiet for a while. "He showed up a little after we got to Makino's. I told him 'bout Gramps and everything. He and Benn talked, and said if we wanted to leave Foosha we could go with them. We were gonna wait 'till you woke up, so he could ask you if it was ok for us to go, but Konda came into the bar and said Gramps was on his way again, and we had to go then or not at all. So I said ok, and Shanks took us with him."

Crap. Gramps was back already? "How long have we been sailing?" I asked, rubbing my good hand down his back gently.

He scrunched up his face a bit, "A day? I dunno, I've been sleeping a lot. Terry brought lunch and dinner already though. It's been a little while since dinner, and we left Makino's just after breakfast I think. That's when Kincaid was changing Sabo's bandages."

I nodded quietly. Ok, so not long, but we definitely were not in, or incredibly close to Foosha. If I remember right, that guy Konda has a son or nephew or something who works at the Dawn City base. If he got word that Gramps was coming, it should take another two to three days after the call for him to show up. As long as we don't run into him while sailing we should be ok.

"Do you know what Shanks is planning to do with us?" I ask him quietly.

Lu relaxes a bit, "No. I told him we listen to you 'cause you're the oldest. I can't make the important decisions 'cause I'm too little. He said there were some options but he'd wait to talk to you 'bout them."

I hummed in acknowledgment. Ok, we are off of Dawn Island. Check. My brothers and I are pretty much safe. Check. We have a guy who is trusted by both Lu and Makino willing to help us. Check.

My internal checklist got cut off by the heavy door creaking open. Two men entered the infirmary, one with red hair and three scars over his face, and a taller man with dark hair. The red haired man noticed me an Lu right away and smiled.

"Ah, seems he's awake. That's good." The man-probably Shanks from Lu's descriptions-spoke easily, but also kept his voice quiet.

I couldn't find any sort of malice or stiffness behind the words, which helped me relax slightly.

"Shanks! Benn!" Lu whisper-yelled excitedly. "I told him and he's not mad!"

I looked at my brother, habitually keeping the men visible out of the corner of my eye, "Why did you think I'd be mad?"

Lu looked at me blandly, "'cause last time I made a decision about where we were going you got mad."

I stared at him, "Lu, last time you made a decision like that was when you went in the caves and I had to fish you out of a croc's mouth. Of course I was pissed about that."

He pouted at me, "Sabo thought it was funny."

"Sabo was delirious. He had a fever." I deadpanned, "He thought that the bear was still talking while we were cooking it. He thought that the bear _talked_ to begin with _._ Try again."

Lu looked away from me to pout further, having nothing to say to that argument.

I looked back to the two adults in the room and saw them looking concerned. Wait, why did they-Oh, right. What Makino said, most adults get concerned by stuff like that. Oops.

There was a kind of awkward quiet for a moment, that was broken by the dark haired man-Benn I think.

He cleared his throat quietly, "Well, I think we should probably talk about what we came here to discuss. I think Luffy has covered introductions for us, but for formality's sake, I'm Benn Beckman. This is Shanks, he's the captain of this ship."

I nodded, and sat up against the pillows a bit.

Shanks grabbed a chair from the side of the room and brought it just a few feet away from my bed. "Well, Luffy told us about the situation you kids were in, since he explained things to you i'm going to guess you know more or less what happened?"

I nodded again.

"Right," he continued, "So there are two options I can give you kids-or three I guess, but I'm not real crazy about the third one. First option, we will be near some other peaceful islands soon. If you want, we can drop you kids off there. It's not near a marine base, but given Garp's rank, it wouldn't be impossible for him to find you."

I grimaced, having immediately come to a similar conclusion.

"Or we could take you with us. Which leads me to my second, and less liked third option. We will be entering the Grand Line again soon. It will be much harder for him to find you in a place that is so full of people always moving around. My less favored option would be to drop you on an island there that is protected by another pirate-Whitebeard. He's powerful, and the marines don't like messing with him much, so any islands under his control are very rarely visited by marines. Though, they are frequented by wanna-be rookies who don't always have the morals to avoid hurting kids. You'd be safe from marines there, but not necessarily safe from pirates."

I frowned, ok, that's not a _great_ option, but it could work if we need it to.

"Or, if you kids don't have a problem with it, there is another option, which would, for the most part, work better than the other two. You could stay on the ship with us. We could keep an eye on you directly, which would deter most marines and pirates from trying to target you. Plus, I doubt that Garp would ever suspect that you would be staying with us to begin with." He looked me in the eye as he finished, and I could see the blunt honesty there.

That _did_ sound like the best option-plus we wanted to be pirates anyway, so serving as cabin boys for a while would help us get a better feel for how it works. Makino has let slip that Shanks was pretty powerful, which was why the Dawn City base had never done anything to deter him from showing up in our corner of the East Blue, so I knew that he was capable of keeping his word of our safety. There was just one thing…..

I frowned, being very careful with my phrasing, "That does sound like the best option, but there are two things you need to be aware of. Me and Sabo have….familial ties to certain people. His are nobles, and they might cause enough of a ruckus later. Mine….mine might cause a lot more issues than that."

Shanks stared at me curiously, and I saw Benn raise an eyebrow, but neither of them questioned me further on it, which I was thankful for.

"Well, if it's just people they send after us, we do have some allies that you kids can hunker down with for a while if things get nasty. If its a public notoriety thing, like you being the kid of so-and-so is going to cause a bunch of people to flip their shit, there is a possible solution that would at least throw that off a bit." Shanks said thoughtfully. "If something like that happened, and caused you to become a target, I could claim you as _my_ kids. If the marines are involved they will probably be more hesitant to target you, and it would throw off civilians enough to make most of them likely to forget whoever the biological person is."

I stared at him, "Wait, you would be willing to randomly claim us as your kids if shit went down?"

Benn raised an eyebrow, "Actually, he's saying that we would be willing to adopt all three of you regardless of whether shit is going down or not. He's just saying it in a very roundabout way."

Lu and I were staring at them wide-eyed. I sputtered for a minute, "You- You would-what? Why?" Why would they want to adopt us? Makino tolerated us because of Lu, and I could get them wanting to adopt him, but why us? They don't know me and Sabo. Hell, with the way I was used to being and treating people…..

Shanks gave me a look that was confused, and something else I couldn't quite identify, "Yes, we would. As for why I can think of several reasons. Which would probably take me a while to narrate."

I shut my gaping mouth with a snap. "I-I need to talk to my brothers about it."

Shanks nodded in acceptance. "I'll tell Terry that you're up. He'll bring you something to eat." He reached over and ruffled Lu's hair before standing up and exiting the room quietly with Benn.

I stared at the door a minute after they left, still processing.

"...Ace?" came a quiet, sleep-laced voice off to my left. Lu and I both turned to look at a now very awake Sabo.

I gathered my thoughts for a second, "Yeah, I'm here. Lu's up too. How long have you been awake?"

"Before Shanks came in." My brother responded tiredly.

For a few minutes I just sat there listening to my two brothers breathe in the calm quiet of the ship. Lu stayed cuddled up to my side, and I carded my fingers through his hair repetitively-a habit that was as calming to him as it was to me.

"...What do you think of his idea?" Sabo asked, breaking the unintentional silence.

My hand stilled on Lu's head, then resumed more slowly, "Which one do you mean?"

"You know which one I mean. The one where he and Benn adopt us. What do you think of it?" Sabo pressed, sounding a touch irritable at my crappy attempt to sidestep the question.

I hesitated. On one hand, it was a really good idea. Lu liked Shanks and Benn, and from first impressions and Makino's approval, they would probably be the best damn parents we would be lucky enough to get if we agreed. We'd be safe, which is my top priority right now, and I think we'd be happy too-which is frankly a lot more than I was expecting. On the other hand...my gut twisted a bit at the idea of fathers. Gramps-and then later some drunks in Mid-Town-had put a pretty bad taste in my mouth concerning Roger, but Shanks and Benn _weren't_ Roger. Plus, I had to have some doubt in the drunks words-they were totally smashed when I asked-and Gramps had even refused to tell Lu who his dad was. I'm not sure how anyone could be "bad" enough to be worse than Roger-'cause that's the only way Gramps wouldn't have told Lu when he told me-so that raises even more questions.

I chose my words carefully, not really wanting to sway my brothers one way or the other, "I think it's a safe option. I think they are being genuine about it, and they seem like decent people. What do you think of it?"

The silence weighed for a bit, "...I think they'd be a lot better than mine." the blonde whispered. "I've been pretty drugged up on pain meds, so I can't be a great judge right now, but they seem really nice."

So Sabo is in, that just leaves Lu.

I nudged my youngest brother gently. He made a small, quiet noise of confusion, and looked up at me.

"What about you Lu? What do you think of that?" I asked gently, already having a good idea what his answer would be.

Lu blinked owlishly at me, "I like Shanks and Benn. They're nice."

"I know, but do you want them to be our parents?" I re-steered him.

"...They really wanna be our dads?" He asked quietly, sounding full of wonder.

Sabo made some sort of grunting agreement sound from his bed, and I nodded slowly. "Yeah, I think they do."

We were interrupted from our quiet conversation by the door squeaking open again. This time, a large man with gray-greenish hair and beard opened it, a large tray in hand. He had kind, coal-colored eyes and a friendly smile.

"Captain told me you were up. About time you ate a proper meal I think." His voice was rough, and naturally kind of loud, but his tone was gentle and easygoing. "And don't worry about your brothers-they ate earlier. Plus I'm leaving some snacks on the table in case any of you get hungry during the night. All of you can feel free to help yourselves to that."

Huh, Makino must have warned him about our appetites. He set the tray on my bed, and started passing a few things out while I sat up with Lu's help. A smaller-but probably still larger than normal person standards-tray of nuts, dried fruits, and crackers was set on the wooden table across from us along with a pitcher of water and three cups. Lu immediately got up and grabbed a glass of water when he set it down, and snagged something that looked like apple on the way back to his own bed.

"I'll come by and collect the dishes later. Just set them on the tray and put it on the floor when you're done." the man said, already heading out the door.

"Thanks Terry!" Lu called after him-much less quietly now that he knew Sabo was up too.

The large man raised his hand in acknowledgement as he shut the door behind himself.

There was no more talking between the three of us until after the plates had been cleared, and Lu had snagged three more apple slices and a handful of some sort of nut.

"So, does that mean Shanks and Benn are our dads now?" Lu asked, tilting his head in confusion.

I glanced over at Sabo. From my sitting position I could actually see his face-or, the half of it that wasn't swathed in white. He was looking at me out of his one visible eye, and raised his eyebrow.

I looked back at our baby brother and smiled, "Yeah, I guess they are."


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Holy crap. I did not think that this many people actually would like my shit writing. Thank you, seriously. And thank you to ChishioShakun especially for the writing advice, that was extremely helpful, and I will try to implement it in further chapters. For now I'm going to leave the older chapters as they are, but later on I may go back and edit them to flow a bit better.

Unfortunately, I do have some not as awesome news. Not only is my junior year around the corner (with three AP classes). But I'm also leaving for the east coast in about a week. After which I will have all of two days before school starts. So, fair warning to you guys, updates are going to be a lot more sporadic, and much more spread out in coming weeks. I will try to post at least two more before school starts (assuming I can get some shit done while I'm in DC) but I can't guarantee much beyond that. It was actually a lot of fun to write this one. Lots of fluff in store, enjoy!

Also, I just now noticed that apparently most of my line breaks did not transfer into the actual chapters because fanfiction fucked up my formatting. I will work on fixing that, sorry about the inconvenience reading that, I had no idea that they weren't there. I will be checking from now on before I actually upload the documents.

Chapter 4

Shanks Pov:

I woke up to Benn staring at me. His eyes seemed to be trying to find some sort of puzzle piece to fit whatever bigger picture he was constructing in his mind-and apparently it had to do with me. I blinked back at him, somewhat befuddled. Now, I don't in the least mind my boyfriend staring at me, but it made me wonder what I had done to warrant that particular expression.

He already had his first cigarette of the day in hand and smoldering, and he was already dressed for the day, with the morning's paper spread over his lap while he lounged in the chair by his desk.

I glanced out the porthole. Morning, probably later morning. Okay, that really doesn't explain anything. Something to do with the kids?

"You're sober." Benn mused aloud.

I turned back to him, raising a baffled eyebrow. "Yeah."

He seemed in no hurry to explain himself as he took another drag from the cigarette before answering. "You've been stone sober since we got to Foosha."

Oh. That's why he's 'puzzling' at me. I tried to think back to the last time I'd been completely sober around him for that long. I came up blank. I think it must have been some time when we were low on stock. Last couple of days I had water with my meals-too focused on the kids to think about alcohol. I'm not beyond admitting that I am something of an alcoholic, though thankfully I can restrain myself from time to time. Though, even when I'm not getting shit faced from some party or another, I typically do have a beer or two with meals. "Huh, I guess you're right." It was kind of a weird thing for me to do.

He looked at me carefully, and took another pull of the cig before responding. "The last time you were sober that long was when I got shot by one of Kizaru's light beams."

My eyes were immediately drawn to his waist, where I knew a palm sized scar lay underneath his shirt. That had been a pretty scary time for me-happened just a month before I was declared a Yonko too. I hadn't touched alcohol for more than three weeks after that. Not until Kincaid had said that Benn's organs were finally healed to the point where he didn't need to have a constant monitor ready to call Kincaid if he worsened.

"You stop drinking when you are under a lot of stress. The situation with the kids is still bothering you." It wasn't a question as much as it was a statement.

I pursed my lips and sat up fully, letting the blanket fall away from my body. "Yeah, I guess I've always been a bit backwards that way haven't I?" Old habits from my days on the Oro Jackson. Stress was always associated with things like big battles-or the Edd War. I had always needed to be on high alert during those times. Now, everytime I come under stress I automatically feel the need to be alert, ready to fight to my best. Alcohol dampens awareness, so it's one of the first things I avoid when I get stressed out.

I threw the blanket off fully and stood up, walking over to the dresser bolted into the wall. Benn didn't say anything while I pulled on my pants.

Of course I was stressed out now. I have three kids on board who may or may not be my sons/charges come whenever they make a decision, all of whom are currently injured, and running from a bad situation. Luffy perked up a bit when Ace woke up, that much I knew, but the kid was still abnormally quiet. I remembered Makino's words about cheering him up-hopefully Ace being awake would help to fix that, I got the feeling that the older boy wouldn't be letting either of his brothers out of his sight for a while. I frowned at the shirt in my hand. Speaking of Ace...

His words about "problematic family relations" had stuck with me. Nobility I understood running from, but Ace had-probably unintentionally-implied that his "relations" might be of a greater problem. Something about that kid was just bizarrely familiar, and it was starting to worry me a bit that I couldn't place where from. I had gotten that feeling again last night, seeing his eyes. Like I should remember them from somewhere. Dark grey eyes, dark hair,-

"Shanks?" Benn called, startling me out of my musings.

I blinked at him, "Huh?"

"You've been staring at your shirt for the last five minutes." He frowned, "Is your arm bothering you?"

I realized that I had been absently rubbing at the scar while off in LaLa Land. "Oh. No, it's not bothering me. I hadn't realized that I was doing that." I answered truthfully, glancing at the hand in surprise before removing it from the scar.

I donned the shirt quickly after that, and wasted no more time gathering the rest of my clothes. Just after I finished dressing, Terry rang the bell for breakfast, and my previous line of thought was completely lost in favor of conversing with Benn-and once in the galley, Maverick-about our course.

* * *

Following breakfast, Benn and I walked quietly through the lower level of the ship. I didn't bother starting a conversation-the only topic I could think of was how the kids were holding up, and I'm pretty sure that would result in Benn telling me to judge for myself when we got to the infirmary.

Something was gnawing at me. I frowned at the dark wood of the hallway as we passed another lamp. I've never been one to ignore my gut, and right now it was telling me that there was something I should be remembering about Ace-and for the life of me I wasn't recalling anything other than the broken arm. Why was it-

A muffled shout came from the infirmary, startling me out of my thoughts at once. I realized immediately that it didn't sound at all fearful or distressed. More like…a battle cry?

I shared a baffled glance with Benn, and we quickened our pace, turning the corner and easing open the door to the infirmary.

I blinked. Once, twice. Nope, not seeing things.

What the hell?

Half of the-normally very tidy-room was in complete disarray. Pillows and blankets had been thrown from the three occupied beds, and were strewn all over the floor. The heavy oak desk-still bolted into the wall in the back of the room-was laden with a small mountain of empty plates, and I silently noted that the water jug was missing. Then there were the kids.

Sabo was disconnected from his IV-not good-and rolling on the floor, howling with laughter. His bandages had loosened a bit from the movement, and I could see part of the angry red skin that stopped just before his left eye. Luffy was standing stock still, legs spread into a mockery of a fighting stance, shaking from stifled laughter, and holding an empty pitcher of water over his head. His eyes were wild, and he had a look on his face like he knew he'd fucked something up, and knew he would probably regret it, but still thought it was funny. Ace-

Ace was drenched. Hair plastered flat to his head, and hanging down his face in unruly tendrils. He was also dead asleep. On the floor. His face was planted very firmly into the wood flooring, one arm tensed in a fist, one leg was cocked awkwardly-like he had been about to kick something-and frozen in the air. His bad arm had been mercifully spared from his apparent tumble by landing off to the side on a discarded pillow, well away from his tangled mess of tiny limbs. And he was snoring.

I looked to a still very frozen Luffy, who was now looking right at me with an equally frozen expression, then to a still shrieking-with-laughter Sabo. Slowly, I raised my eyes to Benn.

He looked on at the scene in silence, his face unreadable.

The snoring stuttered, and halted, and Ace suddenly bolted upright as if he'd never been asleep.

"Luffy! You little shit!" He yelled in mock anger. I could see that he was holding himself back from laughter as well.

Luffy, apparently panicked at that, and suddenly unfroze. He hurled the now empty pitcher at his brother's skull. The thin metal hit its mark, and bounced off of the older boy's skull with a dull _clang_. Ace's head rocked backward for a second, and I was afraid that I would have to move fast enough to keep him from impacting again on the floor. Then he stilled, head tilted back, eyes shadowed by his hair, and arms limp at his sides. Slowly, his head tilted forward until one section of hair shifted, and uncovered an eye like liquid mercury. His jaw clenched in a sharp, brittle grin, and a vein twitching on his forehead.

I stilled completely at that, caught in a bizarre sense of deja-vu.

" _Start running you little shit."_ Ace muttered, eyes blazing.

It was with that phrase that it clicked. My eyes widened, and I stared at the kid, my realization hitting me in the face like a metaphorical ton of bricks.

~~~~~~~~ _Flashback: Oro Jackson~~~~~~~~~~~_

 _Captain Roger was arguing with Scopper and Crocus over the practicality of having an aquarium on board the Oro Jackson._

" _And what good would that do? It's not even possible!" Scopper scoffed, still nose to nose with Captain._

 _Captain didn't lose his maniacal grin, "Grand Line! Your argument is invalid!" he cackled._

 _Crocus looked at him with utter disdain as Scopper sputtered in outrage. "You are a child."_

 _Rayleigh watched with vague interest to see whether or not someone could convince Roger to not put an aquarium on the ship, or if he would actually have to install one._

 _Buggy and Shanks watched the entire fiasco from their seat beside him in the galley, eyes wide, and eating their food silently for once._

 _Rouge entered the galley, engrossed in a conversation with Olivia. The two women paid absolutely no mind to whatever insanity their captain was spouting at that moment-it was all too regular of an occurrence for the mto be bothered by it after so many years sailing with the man._

 _Scopper and Captain devolved into further, and even more childish squabbling. It wouldn't be too long before it came to blows._

" _It's ridiculous!" Scopper bellowed, jumping into an absurd mockery of a fighting stance._

 _Captain followed suit with a shit-eating grin, grabbing a pitcher from the table. "This whole ocean is ridiculous-and so is your face!" the man cackled. He hurled the object in his hand at the gunner, and let loose a victorious sound that sounded a few hairs closer to insanity than any sane person would be comfortable hearing. Not a single person in the room paid it a shred of mind. Their captain was an idiot. A powerful idiot, whom they would follow to the ends of the earth, but an idiot all the same._

 _Scopper ducked the flying piece of alluminum, and it soared over his head harmlessly._

 _Straight into Rouge's face._

 _The entire room fell silent in an instant. Forks and glasses stilled halfway to their destinations, and chewing mouths ceased to move. Roger froze, maniacal grin still etched in his face, but eyes suddenly filled with an irrational fear._

 _Rouge's head was tilted backwards, strawberry-blonde hair knocked out of it's loose arrangement on her head, and spilling over her face and down her back in wild, water-soaked tendrils. The front of her vest and long skirt had been nailed as well, casting her front into a soaked shadow. Almost in slow motion, she began to tilt her head forward again, freckles and a falsely jovial expression revealed as the tendrils began to shift. One look at her face had Olivia backing away in silence, taking refuge across the room at the table with Rayleigh and the two cabin boys, well away from her friend's ire._

 _The woman's face was a mask of pleasantry, frozen into place. Her jaw was set into an insincere smile that twitched slightly. A vein pulsed along her temple, and her fingers twitched toward the knives and flintlock holstered at her hip. By the time she had completely righted herself, and was staring dead ahead at the cause of her sudden state, the entire room was stiffened and ready to bolt. Scopper had stilled completely, still crouched on the floor, staring at the irate woman through his sunglasses. Livid mercury eyes bored into the much darker eyes of her captain._

 _Roger, for his part, was still completely frozen in his own mask of maniacal glee, which did nothing to cover the rivulets of cold sweat pouring down his back at the sight of the demonic creature glaring death at him._

 _Rouge didn't even bother grabbing her knife. In a voice much lower than her usual tone, and not at all unlike the demon she had been silently likened to, she spoke,_ "Start running you little shit."

 _Like any living creature with a shred of self-preservation would, the pirate captain bolted the second the words were uttered. A screeching she-devil hot on his heels._

 _The gouges from her knives hitting the door frame remained there until the Oro Jackson was at last retired, several years later._

 _~~~~~~~~~~End Flashback~~~~~~~~~~~~~_

I quickly concealed the stupefied expression I could feel spread across my face.

Holy shit. _Holy shit. Holy-shitting-sea-gods-of-Atlantis._ Ace is Rouge's son. That's what my brain was trying to tell me. Wild, wavy hair, freckles, color-shifting silver-grey eyes, protective of his family, fiery temper, demonic aura of rage. _Holy shit I am looking at Portgas D. Rouge, Red Demon of the 'Line's son. And I am trying to adopt him. Holy celestial bitch of shit-fuckery and lightning he's her son._

That would explain so many things. "Problematic family" my ass, if he was Rouge's son no wonder there would be people gunning for him. Ex-illegitimate-daughter of a Celestial Dragon, runaway from Mariejois, and one of the most deadly female pirates in history. No fucking shit.

Rouge had pissed off so many people in her lifetime that even if the _marines_ didn't want to kill him, there were plenty of pirates, bounty hunters, and assassins with a grudge that would want him dead, even if just to spite her in the afterlife.

Benn snorted, pulling me out of my internal shock, and back to the-honestly hilarious situation at hand.

Ace was now chasing Luffy around the infirmary, wielding a pillow in his good hand. The younger was going so far as to dive under the beds, wriggling between the slats and the floor like a tiny, rubbery worm-child. Sabo was downright sobbing with laughter now, gasping for breath, and face beet red with exertion as he pounded his un-scorched arm on the floor.

Luffy bolted up from under the bed, and ran to hide behind me.

I started, looking wide-eyed at the seven year old who was clutching my shirt by the hem behind me. "Wha-Hey!" I yelped, looking to Benn for help. He just moved to the wall to give the kids more space to maneuver-damnit Benn.

I shot a heatless glare at my boyfriend before my attention was dragged back to the tiny devils. "Ok no," I said with some shred of authority-which was completely ruined by the amusement in my voice. "I am not being used as a human shield. No-Ace!" It seems that the kids could tell that I wasn't being serious, because Ace just grinned and lunged at me, aiming at his younger brother behind my legs.

"Oi!" I yelped, grabbing the raging child by the shirt and lifting him. "Stop trying to maul your brother with a pillow!" I chided-quite un-effectively, given that I hadn't quite managed to wipe the grin off of my _own_ face. "And you!" I reached behind my legs and grabbed the rubbery child, who loudly giggled in response, "Don't use people as human shields!"

The two children giggled and snickered respectively, and Sabo seemed to calm down slightly-he was still hyperventilating, and hiccoughing as he lay on the floor clutching his sides, but at least his face was regaining a bit of its normal color. Ace looked at luffy for a long moment, and I recognized the "conversation with only eyes" thing, which I often did with Benn or Kincaid-and formerly Buggy as well. Though I had no idea what they were-oh hell no.

Ace's grin widened until I was sure that his face would split in half, and he hefted the pillow in his hand.

The dull thump of the feathered mass impacting my face sent Sabo into a howling fit again. Ace downright _cackled_ from his position dangling in my hand, and Luffy succumbed to his own bought of hysterics. I heard Benn snicker loudly from my right, and silently vowed to get my revenge for that later. I grinned, just a touch sadistically.

"Oh you think that's funny do you?" The kids yelped as I strode over to the nearest blanket-bare cot, and deposited their now wriggling bodies on it. The yelps soon turned into shrieks of laughter as I discovered that-as I suspected-both of them, were in fact _very_ ticklish.

That went on for a minute or so-until Ace called mercy through his hysterical giggling, and I backed up with a chuckle. All three boys took a minute to catch their breath. I looked back at Benn, who was still standing in the doorway. He had a hand over his mouth-the cigarette absent because Kincaid would have killed him for smoking in his infirmary-stifling laughter.

His grey eyes were downright _dancing_ with mirth, and I could see his whole body shaking in effort to stop laughing.

I grinned at him mischievously, and he stared at me, silently telling me to stop. I wiggled my eyebrows, and he snorted, letting himself dissolve into loud, belly laughs like I hadn't heard from him since my botched attempt at asking him out the first time. I snorted, and let myself join him.

Kincaid and Yasopp peeked through the doorway, eyebrows raised and eyeing the mess of a room. I shook my head at them, and waved them away. Kincaid tapped his wrist in a movement that I knew meant he would be back in about twenty minutes, and walked away, dragging a reluctant, and overly-curious Yasopp by the ear.

Several minutes later, as we all quieted down, Benn moved away from the wall and walked over to a still-floor-bound Sabo.

"Need some help?" He asked, kneeling down in front of the boy.

Sabo nodded, still trying to calm his wheezing breath, and sat up, reaching his good arm out to Benn.

Benn scooped him up-mindful of the still healing burns-and grabbed a blanket and pillow from the floor along the way, depositing the boy onto the cot.

Sabo giggled quietly, "Thanks Dad."

Benn stilled as he moved to straighten up, eyes finding me immediately. My own eyes were mide as I looked at the blond boy, then to the two brunettes in front of me. Ace grinned kind of sheepishly, and just a touch unsure, but said nothing to refute his brother's comment, and Luffy-

Luffy got up and latched on to me with a grin, wrapping rubbery arms around my neck in a hug.

I grinned, a bit softer and warmer this time, and Benn chuckled across the room. I reached forward and ruffled Ace's hair, making the boy whine and grumble in protest. Benn did the same to a still grinning blond across the room-who offered far less resistance.

I stood up, and shifted Luffy back down to the bed. "I think we should try to clean things up a bit before Kincaid gets back," I said, giving a pointed look to the two raven-haired children in front of me.

They grinned-quite a bit more sheepish now-and slid off the bed, moving to help me and Benn collect and rearrange the blankets and pillows where they belonged.

Kincaid walked in several minutes later, eyeing the still un-mopped puddle of water in the middle of the floor. He grumbled something about there being more kids on the ship than actual adults, and set about reconnecting Sabo to the IV. Thankfully, the kid had only managed to un-twist the connection between the bag and the needle, rather than actually removing the needle itself. How that hadn't been badly jarred or come out of his arm during the entire escapade I have no idea, and it seems neither did Kincaid.

He eyed Sabo. "Ya know what, I'm just going to take you off of this. You're well enough to pull a stunt like that, and I already know that you can take pills. You'll get the painkillers and antibiotics in pill form from now on. Something tells me you brats are just going to cause more trouble, and if I leave this in its going to cause _me_ trouble." he said, turning off the IV valve, and deftly removing the needle from Sabo's arm, and replacing it with a bandage.

He turned to me and Benn where we had settled by Luffy and Ace to let him work. "If your brats turn out to be half as much trouble for me as you are, you're going to need to give me a larger stipend for medical supplies when we land." He grumbled good-naturedly.

The kids grinned simultaneously, but said nothing, holding some kind of conversation with their eyes. For the first time it actually hit me that we had successfully adopted three kids. I twitched slightly, looking at Benn in mild dread. What have we gotten ourselves into?


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Hi guys! New chapter up, sorry if it's a bit boring/all over the place. I honestly wasn't quite sure how to fill the time gap between Goa Kingdom and the next parts of the story, so it might seem a bit rushed. But for reference this is set around a month after leaving Dawn Island, so the kids have mostly healed up (according to One Piece healing rates anyways, where you can recover from deadly parasite-fueled infections in a matter of two or three days). Unfortunately, now is when things start to get tricky. I kind of planned on having this chapter done and up a few days ago, and trying to knock out another before I leave. Except I leave tomorrow, so that's obviously not happening. I will be pretty busy with my conference and finishing my summer homework(that I was supposed to be doing instead of writing this...oops)so, I don't know if I will manage to get another chapter up before my life goes haywire. We'll see. Anyway, Enjoy the Shenanigans! Chapter Five

Shanks Pov:

Tarushi Island is a nice place. It's not terribly party-friendly, a bit on the quieter, traditional side actually. However it is friendly, and they don't like marines much-according to some rumors, they may be quietly aligned with the Revolutionary Army-so as long as we don't cause them trouble, they don't have a problem giving us fair prices.

The furniture shop owner was obviously curious as to why we suddenly needed three more bunks, dressers, and desks that could be bolted into a ship, but thankfully he didn't actually ask. While Benn and I handled the transaction for the furniture, the rest of the guys were supposed to alternate between guarding the ship, and gathering our food and medical supplies. Maverick was in charge of the group left on the ship-only three guys, more for show than anything-and as part of ship watching, he was also supposed to be keeping track of the kids.

Key word: Supposed to be.

Benn rubbed his temples and sighed, "When did you last see them?"

Maverick hung his head, "About an hour ago. The infirmary was quiet, so we thought that they were sleeping. I guess not. Sorry captain."

I scrubbed my hand over my face, "S'not your fault. Those kids were troublemakers on their home island, they're bound to be troublemakers here. If not trouble _makers_ , then trouble- _finders._ I probably should have warned you guys to keep an eye on them."

I frowned momentarily. I couldn't sense them with my haki, they must be over a mile away then. Damn, those brats move quickly. I glanced to Benn, "You have a better reach than I do, can you sense them?"

He focused for a moment, then pursed his lips, "I've got something a bit to the north end of the island, but they're almost out of my range. Too far to pinpoint."

Three miles? Seriously? In _one hour?_ I know they are energetic little shits, but isn't this a little much?

I groaned, "Let's get going. Look's like the little idiots are going to Shimotsuki Village."

* * *

They were in fact going to Shimotsuki. Why, I have no idea.

"You were right about one thing," Benn muttered, "If not troublemakers, they are trouble-finders."

We found them pretty quickly-haki doing a large part of the work, outside of a dojo, and talking to a green-haired boy who looked about the same age as Ace and Sabo. Who was chewing on a piece of wheat grass. And had three bokken strapped to his waist.

They were friends with him apparently.

Luffy craned his neck backward at a disturbing angle and smiled at us, "Hi Dad! Hi Papa! This is Zoro! He's gonna be on my crew someday!"

I blinked. Once. Twice. Nope, not dreaming.

"Uh," What am I supposed to say to that?

Thankfully Benn stepped in with the higher logic, "Aren't you a little young to be recruiting?"

Sabo giggled, "Maybe, but Lu's gonna be the captain someday, we already know that. And Zoro is cool. He's gonna be a swordsman! And technically first mate, because I don't think Ace or I count because we're his brothers."

I...really couldn't argue with that.

Ace piped up, "Plus, we're not setting off until we're seventeen-or, until Lu's seventeen. That should be old enough to be a captain. We might as well start recruiting now, so that everyone can train and be ready to go when we come back to get them later. They have like, ten years."

I stared at the brats I called my sons. Then I looked at Benn. He gave me a _look. 'Those are your kids and I'm not helping you on this'._ Shit.

"Well...I guess by then you'll be adults, the decision will be yours anyway. Uh, congrats? I assume you will want to keep in touch somehow?"

Sabo nodded energetically, "Yeah, he says his mom has a Snail, so if we have one we can share numbers and just call."

Okay, breaks our security protocol a bit, but we do have a secure denden on board if need be. Getting the kids one of their own to keep track of their...friends, throughout the blues, isn't a terrible idea. We'll just have to be sure to tell them not to give it to everyone they meet.

"Well, I guess that's not a bad idea. We can pick up a snail just for you kids in town. For now get his denden number, and you can call with yours once we get you the snail. That work?" I asked the kids.

Zoro spoke up, "Sure. I'll go-"

"Zoro what the hell are you doing? You have a room to clean young man! What makes you think you can run off and do what you want?" Sounded an irritated female voice from behind him.

The kid twitched, "Shit."

Wait, low, loud voice. Female, and angry. Authoritative. Why does that sound so familiar? I quickly wracked my brain trying to place where I knew that particular voice from. Why does hearing it stir up memories of "bitchy-". I blinked. 'Bitchy Blacksmith'. Holy shit wait-

The woman that rounded the corner was _definitely_ Zoro's mother. Darker green hair, Dark eyes, and dark, sun-bronzed skin. Steady gait, head held high, and impeccable posture, paired with the signature eggplant-colored kimono, still cut crudely just below the knee.

"Mavaella?" I asked incredulously.

The stern woman snapped her eyes away from here son, whom she was about to start berating. She looked ready to bite my head off too. Then she blinked. And blinked again.

"...The fuck?" She muttered. "Shanks? What the hell are you doing here, you miserable brat?"

I sweatdropped. "I'm almost thirty years old."

The kids started snickering in the background.

"You were twelve when I was twenty. And you were a whiny little shit. You were a miserable brat then, and you'll always be a brat to me. Brat." She snorted. Her gaze slid from me to Benn, then from him to the trio of mis-matched children. "You finally find someone capable of tolerating your whiny ass?"

I inhaled slowly through my nose. Gods above, its been years since someone treated me like such a child. Only because it was Mavaella, I restrained myself from pulling something petty, like arguing further. She had been like an older sister-or weird aunt-to me when I was on the _Oro Jackson_. She's gruff, sarcastic, and generally has a weird sense of humor. I knew this was her weird, and embarrassing way of asking "Hey, how have you been. Haven't seen you in almost eleven years, is this your husband?"

Benn was looking inquisitively between the two of us. I'm sure he recognized the name Mavaella from the stories I had told him from my old crew, though I'm not sure what he thought of the whole situation. Other than it being amusing as hell apparently.

Okay. Introduction time. "Mavaella, this is my boyfriend Benn," I nudged him with my elbow, "and our kids. Ace, Sabo, and Luffy." I tapped each one of their heads in turn-a bit more sharply than an introduction would warrant, causing them to whine at me. "Who were _supposed_ to stay on the ship while we stocked up." I finished with a dry look directed at the now grouchy trio. "Benn, kids, this is Mavaella. We were members of the same crew when I was a cabin boy."

Mavaella's face twisted into a sly grin, "Yeah. I was the one who used to dunk his scrawny ass overboard when he got too bratty."

Benn's eyebrows twitched higher on his forehead. Damnit.

"Eh?" Three confused voices chorused, sounding slightly alarmed.

We both chuckled-me ruefully, and her at my pain.

"Mom," Zoro blurted, "Do you remember our snail number?

Now it was her turn to raise an eyebrow, "Eh? Yeah, I do. Why, you wanna keep in touch with carrot-top's brats?"

I bristled slightly at the old barb. Damnit. It's been eleven fucking years and she still gets under my skin. Just like family.

Zoro nodded at the same time Luffy piped up, "Zoro's gonna join my crew!"

She stared. And stared. And stared.

"I won't try to control your life, but you are not leaving this island without my say so until you are at least fifteen. Otherwise you are dragging your mother with you." She said flatly.

Zoro shrugged, "We aren't going to start until later than that anyway. Luffy's going to be the captain, and he can't do that until he's seventeen. I'll be nineteen when we actually start getting stuff together."

She nodded, satisfied, "Alright then. Hopefully that will be enough time to drill some sense of direction into your head. Spirits know you're just like your father…" she trailed off, muttering while she dug around in her kimono for some paper and a pen.

Terrible sense of direction? I looked at the kid a bit closer. He looked almost entirely like Mavaella, but….she had a kid with Michio? Huh. Didn't see that coming.

She scribbled the string of numbers on a scrap of what looked like a grocery list, and wisely handed it to Benn.

"Somehow I get the feeling that you will keep better track of it than Carrot-top or the mini-brats." She said dryly.

Benn took the paper scrap with a wry smile, "I think you would be correct in that."

The kids delved into their own excited "whispered" conversation, which all of us adults pretended to ignore.

Mavaella turned to me and Benn, and this time spoke in a much more conversational tone, "You lot staying long? Or you gotta get back to Paradise?"

"We need to get back to Paradise." Benn glanced at the thoroughly absorbed kids, and coninued in a lower tone, "Our kids are escaping more than vacationing. We just picked them up a few weeks ago."

Her face hardened, "Who from?"

I intoned quietly, "Garp. He's their grandfather."

She gave me a perplexed look, "Alright, I know enough to trust your intuition brat, but why do they need to escape from him? Last I heard he was one of the still halfway decent marines."

"He is, as a marine. As a caretaker? No way in hell. He treats the kids like recruits, and shoved them off onto some mountain bandits when he had to go back to work. The kids were fending for themselves more than being raised. That, and some other...personal situations regarding Sabo's birth relations." I kept to a near whisper, making sure the kids weren't paying any attention.

She sucked in a breath, and set her jaw firmly, "How bad for him?"

I muttered, barely audible to the three of us, "Nobles. All three of them got attacked by celestial dragons when they tried to escape on their own. Coincidence, I think, but a really shitty one."

"Fuck," She murmured. She turned her head to look at them, "Tough kids."

"They are." I agreed, shifting back into more open tones. A part of me wanted to tell her about Ace being Rouge's son, but I knew that I shouldn't. I had yet to even confront my own kid about it-for one thing I might just be seeing things, and it might be completely false anyway. For another thing...if it is true, the fewer people who know, the better. For his sake, and theirs. She had been Rouge's...apprentice, I guess. Rouge was known for her knife work and skill with bladed weapons, and taught Mavaella most of what she knew. If it ever comes out, I know that my old friend will be _beyond_ pissed at me for keeping her teacher's child a secret from her.

Benn and I chatted with her about some more menial things-how old the kids were, and why the hell Zoro had _three_ bokken-for a while more.

Benn glanced up at the sky, "We should probably head back soon if we want to keep putting distance between us."

I looked up, it was getting a bit late, "Ah, we should get going then." We said our goodbye's, and our kids did the same before we moved our separate ways. Us, back to the Tarushi port, and Mavaella-dragging Zoro by the ear-back through the village.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Shit. Sorry for the lack of updates for like three weeks straight. I was in DC for two weeks, and immediately went back to school. Just got though my first week of junior year, and found out that I'm taking three AP classes. So, that, coupled with sports, clubs, and now trying to deal with more real-world things like getting a job has made my update schedule go immediately to shit. I will continue to update this, but it will be a lot more sporadically than I thought. Honestly, if I manage to crank out more than one chapter a month I will be ecstatic. I'm sorry, but summer break is over, and I'm sort of having to adult now, which means fanfic priority gets pushed onto the back burner. I won't drop this story, I promise that I will keep updating. It's just going to take a really long time. Also this chapter is short and it sucks because I panicked and wanted to get something out. I'll go back and fix it at some point, probably next summer. Uh, enjoy my sort-of-fuckup? -RandomViolents

Chapter Six

Shanks Pov:

I pinched my nose. Don't get mad. Don't get mad. They didn't realize that they shouldn't have done it. Breathe.

"Why," I began, "Did you think that this was a good idea?"

The three boys shifted guiltily in front of me. Benn and I decided-wisely-that this conversation would be best kept a bit more private; family only. So, the three of them were seated cross-legged on the floor of our quarters, with me sitting on the bed, and Benn perched on the desk chair across the room.

I stared them down patiently, waiting of a response.

Ace finally broke. All of the boys were incredibly stubborn, but I had learned that Ace in particular hated getting in trouble with us. I think it's probably because he never got in trouble with anyone growing up, and isn't used to the feeling of parental disappointment-which I hated using, but was sometimes necessary to teach them a lesson. Luffy would get some punishments from Makino when he got too unruly-time-outs and extra chores mostly-, and Sabo had been grounded a few times by his blood relations. Ace did not do well with the disappointment factor apparently. Benn and I were still trying to figure out how to work with him on that.

"Well-uh, you mentioned Syrup earlier," He stuttered out awkwardly.

I waited a moment. Ace clammed up again, and drew his eyes to the floor.

"I did. However, that doesn't explain why you three thought that it would be ok to take a supply boat there, by yourselves, without telling anyone where you were going, or asking permission to go in the first place," I said levely.

"We didn't think you'd mind," Sabo muttered, refusing to look me in the eye.

"Regardless of whether or not I minded-we'll talk about that later-why did you go in the first place? You know nothing about the island. I can't imagine that anything I said about it earlier could have sparked your interest. Why?" I pressed, waiting to lock eyes with each one as they shifted in place on the wood flooring.

"'Cause we heard that Yasopp had a kid there. We wanted to meet him." Luffy mumbled sadly.

Oh no. nonono. Luffy is pouting-genuine sad pouting. Crap. Ugh, sometimes I hate parenting. Being the weird uncle would be easier. Then you're not responsible for the stern stuff that makes them sad. All I want to do is hug them and tell them I'm not mad and it's ok. But I'm not supposed to do that because they actually need to learn this lesson.

"That's all well and good, but you _can't_ just run off like that. Do you know how long it took for us to figure out where you were?" I asked seriously.

They shook their heads.

"Three hours. Three hours that we had no idea where you were. I had to have Maverick and Harvey help me scour the water because we thought that you had fallen in someplace." Though I tried to keep my tone even, it still betrayed some of the distress from earlier.

They hung their heads lower.

"Sorry." Ace mumbled, almost inaudibly. Luffy and Sabo echoed him.

Benn sighed, "Sorry works for most things Ace, but it's not a magical band-aid that you can slap on anything to make it ok. It's good to hear that, but it's not going to fix everything. You boys really worried us today. You worried everyone. This is the second time now that you've done something like this. It's starting to become a pattern, and it needs to stop. When we tell you that you need to stay somewhere, you need to stay there. Unless there is an emergency and you need to find one of us, you need to stay where we tell you to. Sometimes there may be a safety reason attached that we don't have the time to explain to you at that moment. We need to be able to trust that you boys will listen and do as we say if the need arises. I'm not sure that we can do that right now."

I winced internally, ouch. Ok, that was what I had been skirting around saying, and they did need to hear it, but that hurt me to listen to. Oh fuck Ace is tearing up. Why do I have to play the responsible parent right now. I just want to hug my sons and forget that this shit happened.

I held myself back from acting on those thoughts as Ace bit his lip and stared at the woodgrain beneath him. Luffy shrunk down a bit, and Sabo starred resolutely at his hands-one still partially bandaged as a protective measure.

Benn and I shared a look over their heads, and nodded.

"You boys have already had enough excitement for the day, I think. Head on to bed. I'll ask Terry to bring you dinner in your room tonight. We'll talk in the morning about what extra chores you'll be picking up as punishment." He said.

The boys picked themselves up slowly, and followed us back to their room; down the hall, second left, and down the stairs, first door on the right, lit by a small lamp outside the door, which was painted with their initials.

Each of them had chosen a color for their letter. Red for Ace, blue for Sabo, and yellow for Luffy.

We bade them goodnight, and told them that Terry would stop by soon with dinner. Benn shut the door quietly behind us as we exited. He looked just as conflicted as I felt.

* * *

I groaned, and let myself faceplant into the unmade grey sheets. Benn sighed behind me.

"Don't be a drama queen Shanks. We had to do that," my boyfriend chided from across the room.

"That doesn't mean I have to be happy about it," I grumbled, not even bothering to take my face out of the pillow.

I thought back to Ace's dejected face as he walked into the boy's bedroom and I felt the guilt all over again.

"We need to talk to Ace about those self-worth issues. It's been almost two months since we picked the kids up from Foosha. That really needs to get addressed," I frowned.

Benn hummed in agreement. "True. Any ideas how to approach him on that?" he asked over the sound of rustling fabric.

I turned my face toward my boyfriend in time to see him toss his shirt into the hamper. "Not really. I don't really know how to handle it-which seems to be the theme of parenthood so far-so I was going to go with it by feel? I was thinking maybe you could take Sabo and Luffy somewhere for a few hours while I talk to him? He already knows that we know about his beliefs about his existence, so he shouldn't be too surprised about me talking to him about it." I furrowed my brows at him. "Think that will work?"

Benn turned to me, sweatpants in hand, "Well I would recommend a bit more planning, but so far planning has been futile with these brats. Maybe get your thoughts in order a bit more, but beyond that it should be fine I suppose."

I watched the sweatpants replace his trousers without saying anything.

Next time we land on an island Benn takes Sabo and Luffy to run errands, and I have a heart to heart with Ace. This is gonna be fun.


	7. Chapter 7

(Super Long A/N): Hi guys! I know that a lot of you have been looking forward to this chapter, so I hope I delivered decently. I'm not totally sure if this is what you were expecting or wanting...because I had basically no idea how to write this. This fic is actually kind of an eye opener to me. It's helping me realize just how many plot holes and loose ends I tend to leave in things, and it's forcing me to think about how a certain character thinks, not just what I think. Unsurprisingly, this is not easy, which is a big part of why I made the last two chapters tie in a few new characters to tide things over. It's easy to gloss over it and say "they had a really helpful talk about all of this the night before," and call it dealt with. However, that's not what I would want to read, or what any of you probably want to read either. So it has taken me awhile to figure out how to play out Shanks and Ace in this. Hopefully I've done it some justice.

Also, because a couple of people asked about it, storyline. I'm not going to give away too much yet-what's the point in that, you need to read it for yourselves!-but I will give a general idea of where I think the story is going in the future. This fic will detail the ASL bros, with a few recurring guest kiddos added, Until probably a year or so before they are going to set sail for themselves. During this time they are going to meet people, fuck up timelines, and save some people that you might or might not expect to appear. Some of the other characters, when they appear, will be VERY OOC. I'm doing that because in my universe, some things have or haven't happened to change their worldviews. (Most of these people will be characters who were a bit more minor in cannon, the core crew and such will remain roughly the same.) Also, there will be a lot more oddball and maybe obscure tie-ins to future characters.

Someone asked why I made Zoro's mom who she was. One, based on cannon, Zoro has a kind of fear/respect surrounding very strong-willed women. I personally like to think that that could have come from a very strong-willed mother, who instilled that kind of response in him as a child. Two, I've watched (too many) OP theory videos on youtube, and one of the ones I watched concerned Zoro's father(still unknown) being from Wano, and or a member of Roger's crew. I liked that theory, but since that whole theory was too complex for me to easily work with without a lot of research, I modified it by making it his mother (my OC) who was from Wano. (His dad here is also another OC of mine, and I honestly don't know if I'll bother to flesh him out. I don't think it matters much to the storyline so I probably won't.) Three, I made this story originally as a kind of character study for Shanks, and I haven't abandoned that(even if I'm not doing a good job of it). So I wanted to explore some of his past on the Oro Jackson. Since so little is currently known about that crew, and the time period in generally(at least to me, though I might just be living under a rock) I decided to have fun with it, and add in some characters to my liking. He and Buggy argued a lot, and had a sort of frenemies relationship. I liked the idea of him having another semi-close age mate that would be like a sibling.

Another thing to address: I might consider a sequel, depending on how I wrap things up with this one. There will be a few more chapters that are in the same time range, then it will start skipping between years a bit more. I don't intend to make this an outrageously long fic. If I make a sequel, it will be less of an ongoing story, and more of a collection of one-shots in the same universe, further down the line. Those one shots will be a few comedic inserts, a few dramatic encounters, and this universe's take on some of my favorite highlights from various islands.

Okay, really long author's note over. Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter Seven

Shanks pov: The heavy door to my cabin swung shut with a low thud. I glanced out the porthole briefly. The sun is up, but it's not quite out of sunrise. He's early.

Ace's signature footsteps echoed quietly in the room as he crossed to the circular table in the corner-where Benn always reads the morning paper. Over the past few weeks, Benn and I (and probably most of the other guys)had begun to recognize that each of the boys had particular quirks about them, making them distinctive even when they are quiet. Not that quiet is a very common thing with these three, but it does happen.

For instance, their walking patterns are easy to differentiate even without looking at them. Luffy walks with energy-shifting his weight sporadically, hopping, skipping, and skidding frequently, causing his flip flops to scritch against the floorboards. Sabo walks with grace-something I highly doubt that he notices. If he did, he would likely try to cover it up, as it is a tell-tale sign of someone born into a higher status. He walks heel-toe, clacking the toes of his boots gently as he goes-when he isn't sprinting down the halls and cackling like a little maniac. Ace is quite different from them both. He generally hates wearing shoes of any sort, and will only do so if we land at a port(because he will get kicked out of some establishments if he doesn't wear them) or in the dining hall (because Terry insisted that it isn't sanitary, and therefore everyone must wear shoes in the galley unless signed off by Kincaid for a medical reason). When he does wear shoes, he prefers large, heavy boots that thunk with every step (and are probably at least a size too big). While Luffy and Sabo walk like kids, chaotic, uncaring, and snapping twigs and crunching rocks wherever they go, Ace does not. He makes a point of walking quietly (despite the occasional clunky boots). He avoids twigs and rocks on paths, and walks in a careful, cautious manner. Like making too much noise will attract something unpleasant.

Right now, the almost silent padding of bare, calloused feet on wood is audible to me through the shuffling of papers on my desk as I tidy up my paperwork.

When all of the necessary logs were put away, I turned around to face him.

Ace was nervous. He didn't openly fidget or bounce in place like his brothers often did, instead when the kid got nervous he zoned out-or appeared to anyway. If he's anything like Rouge then he's probably thinking a million miles a minute about something. She quite often did that, nervous or not (though it definitely became more noticable the more on-edge she was).

He was staring at one spot on the table, arms folded, and one finger tracing the wood grain absently. His eyes were unfocused, shoulders tense, and feet tucked under him with his toes to the floor from his perch at the edge of the seat. One foot faced towards me, the other was angled back slightly, and to the side towards the door. Conscious of an exit, probably ready to bolt at any time.

I made just a little bit more noise than necessary while walking over and pulling the opposite chair out to sit in front of him. By the time I was settled he was back to the present.

"Sorry for keeping you back, I know you probably wanted to explore the port with your brothers." I started. No sense in freaking the kid out first thing.

He shrugged kind of noncommittally, and shifted his eyes between me and the table briefly before settling on the table. "S'ok, I know you wanted to talk to me about something."

I raised an eyebrow, "Oh yeah? How'd you know that?"

He shrugged again, "Heard you talking to Benn yesterday. I know he was gonna take Lu and Sabo into the port while you talked to me about something."

Well, I guess we weren't as quiet as I thought we were. That of the kid is way more perceptive than we gave him credit for. Oops. "Do you know what that something is?"

He bit his lip slightly before quickly disengaging the action. So he knows that that's a tell. Interesting. "You didn't say it yesterday."

"I'm sensing a "but" here." I said, somewhat dryly.

He shifted minutely, "You want to ask me about the stuff me and Lu were rambling about when we got hurt right?"

I nodded, "What you said specifically. Want to tell me about that?"

"Tell you about what exactly? I was saying a lot of things." He tried to sidestep the question.

I gave him a stern look that clearly said that I would take no such bullshit, "I mean, why you thought that you didn't deserve to be alive."

Ace didn't answer what hadn't really been a question as much as a statement."

I sighed, and continued in a much gentler tone "Why?"

He didn't move his eyes from the table while he spoke, "Because I don't."

"I am going to have to disagree with you there, but we'll get to that later. I mean why do you think that." I pushed, keeping my tone level.

He looked up at me with this dead sort of look, and it made my blood boil quietly in my veins because I knew that someone else had put it there, and that was not fucking okay. "Because I killed my mom."

The pause that hung in the air was stifling. My brain short-circuited for a moment. "Excuse me?"

He shifted a little, and then took in a deep breath, "My mom extended the pregnancy a lot longer than it should have been, because if I had been born earlier then the marines would have figured out who my blood father was and killed me. She died right after."

 _Oh-oh, wait that means-oh shit._ I was suddenly very glad for my many years of bullshitting experience teaching me a good poker face, because if not I'm sure my thoughts would have shown on my face very clearly. _He's Rouge's kid. Rouge was Roger's girlfriend_ (very little known, and the two of them were pretty private about it, so even most of the crew didn't know. I only found out because Mavaella told me. To this day I don't think that Buggy knows.) _so...he's captain's kid too? Damn, no wonder he said it was problematic. His parents are the two most wanted people of their generation. The only person who might top their shit-list is Dragon, but even he only pissed off the Government and Nobles. Rouge and Captain pissed off everybody._ I took a deep breath, and spoke slowly as my brain tried to re-route to the original issue, "So wait, you're telling me….that that whole issue started because your mother was amazing enough to intentionally extend a pregnancy, which was a dangerous thing to do, in order to protect you."

"I killed her." His voice was completely flat.

Oh no. No no no no. Fuck no. "Ace, you did not kill your mother. You are _not_ responsible for her decisions." I said seriously.

His face twisted into a protest that I cut off.

"No, listen to me Ace. You did not kill your mother. Yes she probably died due to the extended pregnancy, but you did not kill her. She made the decision, knowing that it could harm or potentially kill her, to extend her pregnancy past the point which would be safe or logical." My voice was hard as I said this, and Ace seemed to shrink a little bit under my words. I softened, and quieted my voice considerably. "Your mother, by any chance was her name Rouge?"

The kid's head snapped up so quickly it was almost as alarming as his expression of shocked terror.

"Relax, you didn't say anything to give it away. If you don't want me to tell anyone I won't. Benn doesn't even know right now. You reminded me of her a few times, that's all." I soothed.

He blinked several times, "Wait...you knew her?"

I nodded, "Yeah, she was a senior crew member on the same ship as me and Mavaella. Mavaella was her protege actually, Rouge taught her everything she knows about knife fighting and blades. I knew her back when I was a cabin boy on that crew."

Ace blinked again, this time in utter confusion. "Wait, my mom was a pirate?"

I stared at him for a few moments in utter silence. Damn Garp, I was going to kill him. "Ace, your mother was one of the most well-known, and quite honestly _feared_ pirates of her era. She held the title of most wanted woman on the seas for well over a decade until she retired, and at one point she ranked third most wanted person in the world. Only just behind Dragon the Revolutionary and Captain Roger himself. "Red Demon of the Grand Line, Portgas D. Rouge" was easily one of the most hated people I've ever met. She pissed off everyone. No one ever told you about her?" I asked, completely aghast.

Ace stared at me like I had just turned the whole world on its head, completely frozen.

"...Don't tell me….Did Garp plant an image of some sweet, innocent girl taken advantage of by an asshole pirate who left her as a single mother?" I asked incredulously.

Ace slowly nodded.

"...Someone ought to fucking slap him, and that someone should be Tsuru." I said calmly, and more than a little disgusted. "She would absolutely wring his neck if she knew that's what he told you. Rouge was the one that gave her that nasty scar on her chest. Even if the old bat hated her on principle, she would rip Garp a new one for undermining the sheer strength and authority that Rouge had as a fighter."

Ace stared at me, wide-eyed. I could see the gears whirling in his head as he processed this. After a long several minutes, he asked, "Wait...does that mean that my blood father wasn't actually an asshole?"

I inhaled through my nose, Garp is very, very dead. He needs to start ordering a coffin and a memorial service, and probably track down that son of his to make amends if he's ever going to, and he needs to do it before I next see him. "By blood father do you mean Roger?"

Ace nodded.

I stared at him, "Roger was an idiotic, goofball, and utterly ridiculous man with a protective streak as big as the Grand line. I can't speak for his actions against enemies, so in the eyes of other crews and marines he probably _was_ an asshole, but his crew was his family. He called us nakama, and he took care of me, Mavaella, and my fellow cabin-boy Buggy better than any of our own parents had.

"He and Rouge were very private when it came to their relationship-so much so than even some of the crew didn't know that they were dating-but they loved each other. Besides that, if and when he ever stepped out of line, Rouge was more than capable of dealing with him. Everyone on the crew knew that she could bench-press the weight of a small elephant with minimal effort. Bodily throwing one idiotic man overboard would be child's play for her. So no, Captain wasn't an asshole, at least not in the way that Garp seems to have told you."

Ace took in this information with confusion and awe. "So...my crazy strength doesn't make me a monster...it's because I got it from my mom?"

"Whoever told you that you were anything like a monster needs to clean out their eye sockets. I have seen real monsters, both human and otherwise, and you are nothing like them. Also, Rouge would absolutely rampage if she heard someone say that about you. She would have loved that her kid inherited her strength, it was something she was damn proud of." I stated bluntly.

"...Gramps is a really shitty person isn't he?" he muttered, staring at the woodgrain.

I sighed, "Garp isn't a terrible person all around-at least I don't think he is. My bet is that he didn't know how to handle a grandkid-especially after his own son turned rogue-so he tried to use marine techniques instead of parenting skills since that didn't work out well with his son. Unfortunately, that resulted in a lot of terrible situations, which you kids should _never_ have been subjected to. It doesn't at all excuse what he did, but it might explain it. Regardless, if he and I ever cross paths we will be having a little chat about his idea of parenting. Or grand-parenting. Whatever." I blinked, "Wait, how _is_ Garp your grandfather anyway? I know that neither Rouge nor Captain were related to him, and you're not Dragon's son. How did you even end up in his care?"

Ace blinked, and opened his mouth before stopping, "I...don't know. He never told us that. I never really questioned it because I knew him since I was a baby. He might not even be Lu's grandfather either. He definitely isn't Sabo's."

Okay, that leaves a lot of questions. Maybe it's time to have a drink with Mihawk. He always knows the nitty-gritty about the marine higher-ups. He's quiet, but he's an absolute Nosey Parker. I think he has enough dirt on the government to sink them if he had enough care to tell the right people. If anyone would know Garp's dirty laundry, it would be him. "...Okay, when we get to the right places, I'm going to make a point of introducing you to some of the old crew members of the Oro Jackson-at least, the ones I know how to find. If things had gone, well, not the way they did, they would basically be your aunts and uncles." Jeeze, he really needs to meet Rayleigh.

Ace looked at me in baffled wonder, "Okay."


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry! I planned to get this up a few weeks ago. Clearly that didn't work out. School has been crazy. Also, I sort of lost the immediate inspiration for this fic. Let me make it clear: I AM NOT ABANDONING IT. However, I am having a harder time getting the fic to a point where I know how to advance the plot smoothly. Also I've spent the last three-ish weeks completely obsessed with the Marvel fandom, and in my excitement sort of forgot that I was supposed to be writing this…

Anyway, hopefully I can sort of get back on track for updates. This chapter has been planned for a while, though I'm not sure that I'm satisfied with how I've written it. Regardless, here is chapter 8. Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 8

Shanks pov

"Remind me again how this happened?" I asked the other adults next to me.

"Our kids had an idea. That's what happened," Bellemere muttered.

Benn groaned and held his face in one hand. "Your kids Shanks. Deal with it."

I sighed heavily through my nose and starred out at the recent destruction. "Yeah, alright," at least the kids were ok.

Cocoyashi was an unplanned stop. I had been all set to bring the kids back to Paradise so that we could rest easier, and I could get some government dirt from Mihawk. Then the boys got hold of one of the maps and pleaded to have a little adventure before going to the Grand Line. Of course, this adventure had to be something weird. Like picking islands from all over the Blues to visit before Garp could find us.

I was a bit worried because of some recent news that had cropped up. Something about one of Fisher Tiger's former men being disgraced and causing problems in smaller islands. I was hoping that we wouldn't find the need to cross paths with him. He was small fry, however he was also a fishman, and one of Tiger's men, which meant he was absolutely not going to be friendly to humans. Particularly human children.

Arriving at the island had been fine, normal. Then the kids wanted to explore the interior, and stumbled headfirst into a terrifying situation. They had been farther ahead, and we hadn't been watching out for haki, so when the dirt road opened up to a small farmhouse surrounded by tangerine trees, we had thought nothing of it. We did, however, think something of the red-headed ex-marine captain (seriously, Bellemere, what the fuck?)about to take a bullet to the head in front of her daughters.

The boys had flipped-terrified of the unknown creatures wielding weapons, and for the seemingly helpless people in front of them. Kincaid darted forward in tandem with Terry. Kincaid grabbed the boys and darted off faster than most eyes could perceive, while Terry swiftly grabbed the two girls and their mother a breath before the bullet impacted with the tree just behind where the woman had been.

Then the moron made the mistake of turning his gun on Benn. He and his men were quickly dealt with-simultaneously knocked out by a controlled blast of haki, and shot dead by Benn, Lucky Roo, and Yasopp.

After several moments of confusion, we found out that while none of the thankful villagers knew why we were there, one little girl and our three miniature, trouble-bound idiots had more than an inkling.

Kids in the East Blue were far better connected than I ever would have guessed. Usopp apparently knew Nami-the orange-haired younger daughter of Bellemere-from a visit he and his mom had made to the island a few years prior. He heard about the overtaking of Cocoyashi from her via snail only hours after it happened, and quickly relayed the information to Zoro, whose number he also had, though inexplicably, who relayed it to Luffy, and his brothers. Ace, ever the voice of reason, had quickly come to the (correct) conclusion that there is no way in hell I would risk my kids in a battle-no matter how small. So they found a (unfortunately easy) solution to goad us into travelling to the island, because they assumed (again, correctly) that once I saw the problems there I would not let them slide undealt with.

Also apparently Luffy (probably via Usopp and Zoro) had gotten Nami's den-den number, and kept in contact with her through the whole ordeal. She had relayed directions to Ace and Sabo on how to get to her house, trusting that the adults would see the problems when they got to her part of town. They were right.

After the whole ordeal had been settled, and Bellemere and I declared a somewhat ironic truce, Nami and Luffy had run to each other screaming "it worked!".

Ace had promptly face palmed while Sabo-ever the airhead-fell flat on his face at the feet of the ex-marine, who regarded the blonde with some concern.

Now, their idea.

"Luffy, why would this even be necessary?" I asked tiredly.

The six-almost-seven-year-old huffed and crossed his arms, "Because! What if we find other places that get in trouble! Then it could be like a special secret place for our friends to go!

"Why would our friends necessarily need to hide from the marines?" I asked again.

This time it was Ace that answered me, sounding equally done with his brother, but siding with him nonetheless, "Because its Lu, his friends are probably going to be pirates or other oddball people, and he is a living magnet for trouble. It's better to just have a safe place and deal with the aftermath that way than have to time we help someone the marines don't like-which will probably be often."

"And what say that?" I ask tiredly.

Sabo looked at me blandly, "Because it's Lu."

I scrubbed a hand over my face in exasperation, and thunked down onto a wooden barrel that I was using as a chair. Unfortunately, he had a point.

Bellemere sighed loudly behind me from her perch on another barrel. She stood up and faced the small crowd of other villagers. An older man with a pinwheel hat stood close to her and an elderly doctor-the three of them were the town's de-facto counsel of decision makers. After a few minutes of discussion, they split off, going around and discussing with various groups of civilians. Around twenty minutes later-much faster than anticipated-the three reconvened, and Bellemere nodded at something as they reached a decision.

The woman strode back to the pirates' location at the barrels with a calculating look. She grabbed one of the unoccupied barrels and dragged it to rest in front of me and Benn. She sat down heavily on the wood and tapped the ashes off her cigarette. "We discussed the kids' i idea. As odd as it may be to say, it my not be unreasonable."

My eyebrows rose at her statement. What the fuck? "Okay...not going to lie that is not the response I thought I was going to hear just now. Particularly coming from you."

The former captain pursed her lips and stared at the burning stub between her fingers. "The marines aren't what they used to be. When I was captain, we fought to protect the civilians first. Above all we fought to protect. There was corruption still, but it wasn't near as rampant as it is now. I for one am sick of these uppity assholes with berri signs in their eyes thinking that they can walk over anyone they please if and when it suits them. The other agree.

"We wanted to split with the government long before Arlong came about. The only reason we didn't was due to the promise of protection from bastards like him. We begged the local bases for _years_ and were ignored. They wouldn't help us when we needed it, and I'm fairly sure one of the slimy rats was getting paid off my Arlong." She muttered.

She was telling the truth. Her body language and tone spoke loudly of that. Long-restrained anger under the surface visible in the way she struggled not to bite down on the smoldering ash-maker in her mouth. There was a calculating edge to her eyes that I was familiar with. She wanted to strike a deal. "So, what exactly do you propose?" I asked, carefully shifting my posture back. Shoulders loose, body language open and gauging, meeting her eyes evenly.

She straightened, "Simple trade off. You break your streak and claim Cocoyashi as a protectorate. In return, we will keep quiet anyone you send our way that needs to stay below the radar for some reason. Quiet supply stop, East Blue information, that sort of thing-once we get our economy on the right track that is. I know that it's not exactly your "style", however, given your recent changes-" she said, gesturing to the boys over with Kincaid and Terry "I think this would be a mutually beneficial arrangement."

She had a point. I thought briefly to Mavaella, Zoro, and Usopp. If they ever needed a refuge it would only be a short trip to Cocoyashi for safety, rather than trying to brave it back to the Grand Line to evade someone. If the kids needed a place to lay low, Cocoyashi might not be a bad option, depending on the circumstances. Another secure trade post wouldn't be a terrible idea, and the suggestion of an informant chain in the East Blue could be extremely useful-particularly with the Garp the Shitty and Questionable Grandad issue at hand. Downside would be quite minimal-an unfortunate change to my reputation, which would cause alarm in the marines, but I could care less what they flip out about.

I could feel Benn's questioning stare boring into my skull. "I agree that it would be beneficial. Are you sure that's what you want to do?" I ignored my crew gaping behind me. I had gotten similar propositions in the past, but I had always declined them in favor of being the "wandering" type. This is the first time that I have seriously considered this. I couldn't see Benn's face from the angle I was sitting, and it made me vaguely curious whether or not he was surprised by my actions.

"I talked it over with Genzo and Doc. And we talked with everyone in the town. Unanimous agreement from everyone. If you are willing to let us, Genzo will draft and accord." Bellemere said, tapping off the ashes again.

I spared my boyfriend a glance, then scanned the faces of my crew, then sparred the kids a look where they were chatting happily with Nami and her sister, Nojiko. "I think that is acceptable." I responded once I turned back to her.

She grinned in response, turning to wave at Genzo. The older man nodded and disappeared into the house with Doc, presumably to draft up an accord. She rose, and stretched out one hand towards me. I grasped it in response, shaking her hand firmly. "Glad to hear it,"

* * *

A few hours later I was inside the small farmhouse with Benn, Yasopp, Bellemere, Genzo, and Doc to finalize the accord.

It was fairly easy-both my crew and the people of Cocoyashi seemed to have very similar ideals of what this deal would and wouldn't allow.

Simply put, we had free trade through Cocoyashi, and any of our allies(if confirmed by a proven member of the crew) had political sanctuary in the borders of the island. Cocoyashi would provide quarterly(seasonal) reports on commonplace East Blue activities, and any urgent activities would get reported as they saw fit following a town meeting.

In return, we provide protection for the island from pirates and marines. In our (more frequent) voyages back to the East Blue, we would help to train the locals in basic combat and strategy(mostly by providing resources for Bellemere to use as she saw fit for that purpose).

As part of the deal, upon Luffy turning age of 18(about a year after he planned to start captaincy) Cocoyashi would integrate into a joint protectorate between the Red Haired pirates and the future Strawhat pirates (working name, which may actually end up being their name since Luffy suggested it). And would extend the same deal to Luffy and his future crew in conjunction with mine.

Genzo frowned after the last accord was signed. "Usually for things like this there is some sort of liaison. Pity we can't do that. It would probably help solidify this."

"What's a liaison?" Luffy asked, bounding up to the table curiously.

Benn responded, "It's a person who represents another group. If a Cocoyashi sent a liason, that would mean that someone from the village would travel with, possibly join the crew. If a liason from the crew stayed here that means they would live on Cocoyashi and represent the Red Haired pirates in political things."

"Oh." Luffy said, cocking his head to the side. "We already have that."

Benn and I shared a glance, and then looked to am equally perplexed Bellemere and Genzo, "We do?"

"Yeah. Nami's gonna join my crew and be my navigator someday. So when my part starts then we will have a liaison right? So she's like...a junior liaison right now." Luffy rambles.

Clearly this was the first Bellemere and Genzo heard of this.

"And when would this be happening?" Bellemere asked cautiously.

"When I'm seventeen." Luffy said, picking his nose.

Benn tapped Luffy's head, and gave him a stern look. Luffy stopped picking his nose.

Bellemere relaxed slightly, realizing that her daughter would be close to twenty by that time.

Sabo shouted something about playing tag outside, and Luffy was gone.

Bellemere sighed, "Those kids are going to be the death of us aren't they?

I laughed quietly, settling against Benn on our side of the bench, "Probably. But we can't help but to love them anyway."


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Uh. Hi. *waves*. So that didn't go well. Without boring you with the details and excuses: Junior year is hard, I'm an over-achieving idiot, relationships are hard, and anxiety is a bitch. Whoops. I'm...going to see how much I can get done this week, since I'm actually on break again. And I haven't uploaded since the last time I was on break. Um. Yeah, I have no idea when I can try to reliably get back to this. Still not giving up on it, just to be clear. My schedule is just shit because I don't know how to say no to things. And summer is going to be a very iffy thing in terms of updates, given that I'm not going to be home for most of it, and will be in another country for almost half of it. Then its senior year, which probably won't be much better than junior year, if I'm being honest. To those of you who have been following this story for a while, I'm so sorry. I will be continuing this, but it will be an extremely unreliable update schedule. Thank you guys so much for your sweet comments! Sorry this one is a little short, but I feel like it flows better than the others that I tried to drag out more, and I actually like it the way it is right now. Enjoy!-RandomViolets

Shanks pov

The North Blue sucks. Its frigidly cold, and the tropically-raised brats have no idea how to handle it.

Luffy seemed to be pretty much fine. He was cold, and if he stopped to think about it, he would complain that he was cold, but his devil fruit seemed to give him at least partial immunity to the hostile temperatures. Sabo was always cold. And he complained. Loudly. Ace was clearly cold, but was usually more annoyed with his restricted clothing than the actual temperature.

And they found trouble. Again.

The blond marine awkwardly met my eyes. Sengoku's son. Not someone I expected to run into, much less help. Yet here we were.

Rociante and his kid(I want to call him his adoptive son, but something tells me it's more complicated than that) were apparently being chased by one of Doflamingo's lackeys. Luffy, naturally, decided that the sickly kid was going to join his crew. When Luffy said this, the sickly kid-who is clearly quite smart-agreed to join his crew if Luffy saved him and his caregiver(?). Luffy agreed. And I allowed it. Why, I have no idea, even three hours later. So now I had a (currently) well-behaved marine captain who looked about as well-settled about this as I felt.

However we were both ignoring that in favor of helping the kid.

The kid-who apparently went by the name Law-was sick. According to Rociante he had been a lot worse before he ate the devil fruit. That said, while he seemed to be on the mend and recovering from Amber Lead poisoning, he was still thin and pale, and had a nasty cough when he moved too much or too fast. Kincaid was taking care of him now.

I sighed quietly. Why are kids so much trouble?

"So," I started, causing the blond man to look at me warily, "Your kid is going to be on my kid's crew I guess?"

He grimaced, "Apparently."

I pursed my lips, "Look, I know I'm about as trustworthy to you as an average thief, but I'm not going to do or ask for anything unreasonable, alright? We both know I don't have a reputation like that, and I'm not going to hurt someone my kids like."

Rociante gave me a wary nod.

"Right. Are you two heading to a base? I won't go straight to one, but I can drop you off on a peaceful island to wait," I offered.

He was quiet for a minute, weighing his options, then sighing, "A peaceful island would be great, but don't go out of your way to take us near a base. We won't be going there."

I raised an eyebrow. "Alright. Can I ask why?"

He hesitated, and glanced towards the infirmary door as if reassuring himself that Law was safe, before turning back to me, "Law. Most civilians called Amber Lead contagious, despite it being a hereditary buildup. In North blue there will be mobs out to kill him until his spots fade. Marine bases are worse. The devil fruit that Law had is worth more than most. He would be locked up and controlled every moment of his life. We just got free of one psychopath, I don't want him to end up with another."

I grimaced, poor kid. "Any island in particular you have in mind, or can I make a suggestion?"

He raised an eyebrow dubiously, "Law may want to join a pirate crew someday, but that doesn't mean I want to live in a pirate haven," he warned.

I hummed thoughtfully, "Well, I guess that depends on what you count as a haven. The place I'm talking about is one where my crew and I are welcome, as are our allies-and those of the kids, which is the main reason I'm offering this, because they consider Law a future ally. The people there are not pirates, but they are withdrawing from the government soon because the marines have refused to help them for so long."

He frowned thoughtfully, "But other crews won't just drop by?"

"The only one I can think of doing that might be Mihawk, if he's in area, but that's unlikely. Besides that, Luffy's crew-in about six or seven years-will be there sometimes. That's it.".

Rociante sat quietly for a few minutes, mulling it over. "I'll talk to Law about it. If he's good with it then it's probably as good as we'll get." He muttered, still clearly annoyed at having to take help from a pirate-or that his kid wanted to be one. either one was plausible.

* * *

Ace pov:

Law was interesting. He was definitely still sick, but he was well enough to talk to us while Kincaid made his medicine.

"So Luffy is going to be the captain?" Law clarified, "Are you the first and second mates then?"

Sabo shook his head, "No, we're his brothers. We didn't really think it fit with the rank system, and we'd never know who should be which. We won't have a number rank, but we'll be kind of up there with the ranked mates later.

"We do already have first through third mates though. Zoro-we met him a while ago, we can snail call him later for a meeting or something-he's the first mate. Nami is the second mate, and Usopp is our third."

Luffy bounced up in his seat, "Zoro's gonna be a swordsman, Nami'll be our navigator, and Usopp is gonna be our sniper!"

Law hummed, "Sounds like you still need a doctor."

I sighed "Yeah. We do. We'll need a ship-doctor badly once we get everyone together."

Law pursed his lips and thought for a moment, "Well, I'm going to train to be a doctor. If you still think you'll need one-"

I cut him off dryly, "With our luck, we're going to need an entire team of doctors. Regardless of whether or not we will already have one, we will need another."

Law raised an eyebrow, "You can't possibly be that accident-prone"

Sabo deadpanned, "Our baby brother is our captain. He is the reason that our dads liberated an island. He is the reason we are in North Blue right now. He is six years old, an unofficial and official pirate captain with a five person crew and a co-protectorate island in less than his first six months at sea, without his own ship, and still technically under captaincy of his adoptive dad. If you actually think that any of those are the craziest thing he's done, then you have no idea what you are signing on for."

Law's eyes widened as Sabo spoke until they were almost bugging out of his head.

"Oh, and he's going to be the Pirate King," Sabo shrugged.

The cabin was quiet for a moment as Law absorbed that. The future doctor looked from one brother to the other slowly, "You guys are crazy," he said seriously, "Completely and utterly insane." His eyes came to rest on Luffy, and for a long moment, he was silent; grey eyes thoughtful. Finally, his speckled face broke into a wild grin. I bit back a smile. That was the same kind of wild, mischievous grin that was so familiar to us.

"I'm in."

Lu cheered loudly, running circles around med-bay. Sabo's face split into a wolfish grin, showing off his missing tooth. I laughed quietly as Kincaid yelled at Lu to stop running in his infirmary.

I looked at Law, "Welcome aboard, future-doc," and grinned 'till my face hurt, "It only gets crazier from here."


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Uh, Hi. Long time to see, hehe. So, without going into a lot of detail, my Junior year sucked. I had a massive falling out with one of my closest friends, and basically turned into a bitter, rage-fueled bitch for several months. Every time I sat down to write, that was all that would come out. Since rage was** ** _not_** **something that was supposed to be part of this fic, I elected to just put this aside entirely until I felt like I could write something that wasn't just me projecting my bitterness. That process took...much longer than I had originally thought that it would. Then summer rolled around and I was running from one pre-planned activity/trip to the next, and didn't have either the time or the wifi to sit down and write. Then senior year happened. Well, is happening, technically. But, I'm not a rage-fueled bitch anymore, and my school is doing the responsible, if inconvenient, thing of moving completely online for the rest of the year. So, now I have time to write. Sorry if this chapter is a bit on the shorter side. I don't want to try to push the chapters into being longer at the sacrifice of the story's flow, so that may mean more short chapters overall. No promises on when updates will happen again, as I still have life-stuff to take care of, but I will try to get moving on this story again. For now though, thank you, and enjoy! ~RandomViolets**

Shanks Pov:

I should be used to this by now. I really should. I watched the circle of five boys sitting on the floor in what would eventually become a restaurant ship. Rociante slumped over his seat on the barrel a few feet to my right, and Benn was conversing pleasantly-if a bit tensely-with the now peg-legged Red Leg Zeff. Who was alive, apparently.

Rociante eyed the excitedly conversing boys tiredly. "Do your kids make a habit of recruiting other kids onto your youngest's pirate crew?"

"Yes." Benn and I deadpanned simultaneously.

Zeff snorted and Rociante let his head fall onto the wooden table with a loud thunk.

Zeff looked at me, "And I guess that the eggplant is their latest recruit?"

I sighed, "Looks like it. Look, if it's any consolation, no one is doing anything until Luffy is seventeen. So he's still got about ten years before the brats even think about setting off on their own."

"Well that's good to hear." Rociante grumbled, not bothering to lift his head off the table.

Zeff grunted, which could have been an agreement as much as it could have been an insult.

I watched the kids chatter without really paying attention to their conversation. Luffy was acting like his normal, happy-go-lucky self, thank goodness. Ace, shockingly, had warmed up to both Law and Sanji quickly. Though, he still watched Zeff and Rociante with a small amount of trepidation, so it might have more to do with them being other kids, and both being younger than him than it did them being new people. Sabo seemed to be a social butterfly-though significantly more tactful than Luffy tended to be-and got along great with the other kids from the get-go.

Law was looking better, I noted. His "patches" were fading rapidly from hard, itchy, scaly spots of too-white skin into slightly too pale, and slightly pink from irritation patches that could almost pass as just being really dry skin. Kincaid's medicine, and Terry's food plan had gotten him looking a little less skinny, and a lot closer to "healthy".

Sanji, despite being only three months off of the "starvation island" he was on with Zeff, looked almost like a normal kid. He was a little too skinny, but I had little doubt that Zeff was remedying that. Most of all, he seemed to be ecstatic to have people-particularly peers around his age-who thought that his dream _wasn't_ an impossibility, and more than that, actually having said peers _encourage him to pursue it_.

"So," Law butted in before Luffy or Sanji could be led on another tangent. "We have a captain, a swordsman, a navigator, a sniper, a doctor-" he gestured to himself briefly, "-and two unspecified brothers who are basically the behind the scenes co-captains who mostly follow whatever Luffy is doing anyway. Any idea what position you will fill?" He asked curiously.

Sanji's grin nearly split his face, "I'll be the chef!"

Zeff snorted loudly this time. "You've still got to learn how to _cook_ first, brat."

Sanji rolled his eyes, not letting his good mood be spoiled by the grouchy ex-pirate. "Yeah, but I have ten years for you to teach me first though, right?"

Zeff's gruff demeanor faltered briefly before he leaned back in his seat and grumbled warmly, "Cheeky brat. Of course."

The kids turned back to their excited planning, and Zeff turned to eye Rociante.

"So, how'd you and your brat get tangled up with theirs?" He jerked his thumb at me.

Rociante, still not moving his head from the tabletop, grumbled into the wood. "He and his kids saved us from getting executed by my evil shitthead of a brother's lacky. Law has a unique situation where if he got in the hands of the Marines or World Government, then he would be manipulated and caged for the rest of his life. I refused to trade one power-hungry psycho for another, and somehow decided that letting him go pirate was a safer option than whatever else I had planned. Also, they-" He pointed-with somewhat amusing accuracy for a man with his face planted on a table-towards me and Benn, "made a damn good argument that I couldn't find a counter argument to. So now I'm en route to an island that is the protectorate of a pirate, so that me and my kid can play civilian for a few years without the World Government breathing down our necks."

Zeff continued to eye him. "...Didn't your brat say that you were a marine?"

"Yes."

"...a Marine captain?"

"Yes."

"...well, that's not something I expected to see outside of the Grand Line," Zeff muttered as he turned away to putter around his kitchen again.

I eyed Rociante as the kids cheered again-either over some aspect or another of their plan being worked out, or over the fact that they managed to gather enough snails that they could put Zoro, Nami, and Usopp on the call with them all at once, or maybe both.

The man still had his face planted on the table.

I glanced back at the kids, and briefly reviewed a few of the escapades that the boys-and their future crew-mates-had gotten into in the span of only a few short weeks.

I looked back at the ex-marine captain and silently sent him my sympathies.

This poor man was going to go completely grey before his kid hit twenty.

So was I.


End file.
